The history of political parties in the state of New-York, from the ratification of the Federal Constitution to December, 1840 ..

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THE

HISTORY

OF

POLITICAL PAETIES

IN THE

STATE OF NEW-YORK,

FROM THE RATIFICATION OF THE FEDERAL
CONSTITUTION TO DECEMBER, 1840.

IN TTTO TOIiUOTES.

By JABEZ D. HAMMOND.

VOL. I.

COOPERSTOWN:

PUBLISHED BY H. & E. PHINNEY.

1844.

■«1 — .!» ^ A

Entered according to an Act of Congress in the year 1842, by Jabez D.
Hammond, in the Office of the Clerk of the Northern District of New. York.

8INDINQ \

numberV
OF 1899.)

4115

PREFACE.

Before any part of the following work was written, I addressed a lettei
to a highly intelligent and judicious friend residing in the city of Utica,
informing him of my plan, and asking his advice whether the attempt to
execute it would be discreet or prudent ? His I'eply, in substance, was : —
*' If you describe men and their actions as they really were and are, you
will draw upon yom-self the interminable and bitter hostility of the persons
about whom you write, as well as that of their connexions and friends. If
you palliate or conceal conduct which merits animadversion, your book
will not be what you profess it shall be, and will, besides, be dull and unin-
teresting. I advise you to abandon the project." Like most men who ask
advice, I have neglected to follow that which I received from my sagacious
friend.

Notwithstanding the opinion I have quoted appears on its face quite
plausible, I still entertain the hope that the truth may be told in relation to
the political conduct of men without exciting their enmity, or that of their
friends. At any rate, I am sure, that a candid, fair, and impartial narra-
tion of the actions of public men, may be given without affording just
cause of offence. But suppose the publication of truth should occasion to
some few individuals unpleasant feelings, will not such publication, in its
consequences, be generally salutary ? Ought not the legislator and the
politician to be fully aware, and strongly impressed with the belief, that he
will be held accountable for his acts and declarations, not only to his imme-
diate constituents and cotemporaries, but to posterity ?

Others of my friends have advised me that a history, written upon tha
principles which I claim to have been governed by, ought not to have been
attempted by an actor in the scenes which he describes, who, of course,
must have been a participator in the passions and prejudices which pre-
vailed, but should have been executed by a man of another generation, or,
At any rate, by one who had not mingled in the contest, and who had kept
himself entirely aloof from party conflicts. The answer to this suggestion
is, that a work written by such a person must, of necessity, to a considera-
Die extent, be fiction and not history. Could a secluded philosopher, a
cloistered monk, or a man who lived during the reign of Louis the Fit
teenth, have described the actions of men in the city of Paris, and their mo-
tives of action, from Court Journals and parliamentary records, so well and
truly as they are delineated in the memoirs of Cardinal De Retz ?

lY PREFACE.

My object has been to epeak of men as they were. If I undertake to
describe to a friend the person of one who is a stranger to him, and who
happens to have red hair, do I act with good faith if I say his hair is black
or chesnut colored ?

Our government is a representative democracy. The Grecian, Roman,
Italian and Dutch governments, though called republics, were either aris-
tocracies or pure democracies. Such a government as ours was unknown
in the world, until within sixty or seventy years. It is for this reason that
a correct history of man acting upon this new theatre, must, of necessity,
develop new traits in the human character— a new page, if I may so speak,
in tlie natural history of man. Hence, the view I have presented, if I have
successfully executed my plan, will interest the philosopher as well as the
statesman.

Smith's Colonial History of New-York, and Dunlap's continuation of it,
(a very valuable work,) stops at a very early period in the existence of this
government, and indeed, does not, I believe, profess to be a history of the
poUtical parties which prevailed during the times of which it treats. Our
biographical writers have mainly confined themselves to a description of
the character and actions of the persons of whom they write : and their
works generally partake more of the character of eulogy than history. Of
this, it would be easy to cite examples. It may therefore, I think, be said,
and truly said, that the political history of the state has not yet been writ-
ten.

I can say, and I do say in the sincerity of my heart, that I have written
the following sheets with the same regard to truth as I should answer
interrogatories if testifying in a court of justice. But notwithstanding this,
it is possible, and indeed probable, that I may have, in some instances,
erred as to matters of fact ; but, I hope and believe, that those errors will
be found to be neither numerous nor very material. With respect to ray
inferences and conclusions from facts, the reader will, of course, judge
whether they are or are not correct.

It will be perceived that I have confined myself, in the description of
parties, to those parties only which have affected the politics and legislation
of the state of New- York. Hence, the action of' the national government,
and the character of the individuals who controlled it, are only noticed
when the conduct and management of that government had an immediate
effect upon parties in the state of New-York ; and hence, also, the action
and services of some distinguished members of congress from this state are
little noticed, and even the names of many of them are not given.

The history of the Senate of New-York contained in the following pages
wiU be found ample, and, it is hoped, satisfactory. The names, and gene-
rally, the political character of every senator elected since the year 1788,
are given.

PREFACE. V

The history of the assembly is not so perfect ; but I flatter myself that it
will be found that the names, character and actions of most of the leading
members of that important department of the state government have been
correctly set forth.

Tliat a work, of the kind this professes to be, is much vi^anted, and, in-
deed, indispensably necessary to the young politician, and that it is caU
culated to be extensively useful, will, I have no doubt, be admitted by all
reflecting men ; if, therefore, this has been executed with fidelity and im-
partiality, it is hoped it may receive the approbation and patronage of a
generous public. It may, however be, (and indeed what can be more pro-
bable ?) that I have wrongly estimated the merits of the work. Of this,
the public must and will judge. I may, nevertheless, be permitted to say,
that I believe that those who take the trouble to read the whole of what I
have written, will arrive at the conclusion that the tendency of it will be to
promote kind and good feelings between individuals belonging to adversa
parties, and to cause the great laws by which all parties ought to be go-
verned in their conduct towards their own members, and towards their op-
ponents, to be better understood. I also hope and believe, that this history
will illustrate, by very numerous examples, the truth of a common remark:
that there are good and bad men among all parties, and that the real diflfe.
rence in principle between an immense majority of the individuals who
compose the two political parties in a state, is not so great as is generally
imagined, or as is commonly represented by the leaders of the respective
parties.

If the result of my labors shall aid the rising generation, and especially
the young politician, in forming a just estimate of the merits of distin
guished individuals, and of parties who have heretofore occupied the politi-
cal field ; if it shall tend to assuage the bitterness of party zeal, and particu-
larly that bitterness which produces personal animosities and poisons social
enjoyment ; and, above all, if it shall contribute towards fixing firmly in
the mind of every citizen, to whatever party he may belong, a determina-
tion that the great and fundamental principles of civil liberty, guaranteed
to us by our state and national constitutions, are never, from party conside-
rations, or the supposed interest of any party, to be violated, I shall fee.
myself amply rewarded.

CONTENTS

OF THK

FIRST VOLUME,

CHAPTER I.

The state of Political Parties in the State of New- York at the time oi
the adoption of the Fedeial Constitution, P- *^

CHAPTER II.

From the adoption of the United States Constitution to the general elec
tion in 1792, p. 30

CHAPTER III.

From the General Election in 1792, to May, 1795, p. 62

CHAPTER IV.

From April, 1795, to May, 1798, p. 91

CHAPTER V.

From May 1, 1798, to May 1, 1801, p. H^

CHAPTER VI.

From May 1, 1801, to May 1,1802, p. 164

CHAPTER VII.

From May 1, 1802, to May 1, 1803, p. 185

CHAPTER VIII.

From May 1, 1803, to May 1, 1804, p. 197

CHAPTER IX.

From May I, 1804, to May 1, 1805, p. 210

CHAPTER X.

From May 1, 1805, to May 1, 1806, p. 225

CHAPTER XI.
FromMav 1, 1806, to May 1.1807, p. 23fe

Viii INDEX.

CHAPTER XII.

From May 1, 1807, to May 1, 1808, p. 248

CHAPTER XIII.

From May 1, 1808, to May 1, 1809, p. 266

CHAPTER XIV.

From May 1, 1809, to May 1, 1810, p. 277

CHAPTER XV.

From May 1, 1810, to May 1, 1811, p. 283

CHAPTER XVI.

From May 1, 1811, to May 1, 1812 p. 2S,7

CHAPTER XVn.

Banks, p. 323

CHAPTER XVIII.

From May 1, 1812, to May 1, 1813 p. 340

CHAPTER XIX.

From May 1, 1813, to May 1, 1814, p. 360

CHAPTER XX.

From May 1, 1814, to May 1, 1815, p. 377

CHAPTER XXI.

From May 1, 1815, to May 1, 1816, p, 402

CHAPTER XXII.

From May 1, 1816, to May 1, 1817, p. 430

CHAPTER XXm.

From May 1, 1817, to May 1, 1818, p. 445

CHAPTER XXrV.

From Mayl, 1818, to May 1, 1819, p. 477

CHAPTER XXV.

From Mayl, 1819, to May 1, 1820, p. 506

CHAPTER XXVI.

From May 1, 1820, fo May 1, 1821, p. 539

POLITICAL HISTORY

OF

NEW-YORK

CHAPTER I.

THE STATE OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE STATE OF NEW- YORK,

AT THE TIME OF THE ADOPTION OF THE

FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.

During the contest for American Independence, the
existence of political parties, according to the present no-
tions we entertain of those associations, may be said to
have been unknown in the United States. There were
indeed in each of the states, a few families who, either
from motives of interest, or considerations of duty, retain-
ed their attachment to the British Governmentj and per-
haps the state of New-York, in proportion to its popula-
tion, contained a greater number of adherents to the King
of England, than any other of the American Colonies.
This was probably partly if not entirely owing to the great
number of offices held in the then colony of New- York,
under the Crown. But an immense majority of the peo-
ple, as well in this as in the other colonies, at an early
stage of the controversy with the mother country, resolved
at any and every hazard, to resist what they deemed to be
the unconstitutional laws enacted by the Imperial Parlia-
ment. After the commencement of hostilities, those who
supported the claims of Great Britain, and who were

1

2 POLITICAL HISTORY

called torieSj were regarded by the great mass of the
people, and even treated by the temporary governments
which were organized, rather as alien enemies than citi-
zens of this country. A decided con\'iction that the acts
of the British Government were an encroachment on their
rights as freemen, a fixed and settled determination to
maintain those rights, an ardent desire to establish a free
government independent of all foreign control, and a sense
of common danger, constituted a strong bond of union of
the friends of American liberty and independence ; — and
though personal jealousies, avarice, rivalship and ambition
no doubt existed, and occasionally produced combinations
of individuals and consequently cabalsj in general all self-
ish views, pursuits and interests were absorbed in the con-
templation of the most eifectual means of resistance to
unconstitutional and oppressive laws, a resolution to de-
fend the principle of equal rights, and a determination to
establish an independent government.

But no sooner had Great Britain acknowledged the in-
dependence of the United States, and the treaty of peace
of 1783 been ratified, than men began to speculate on and
form different and adverse theories respecting the form of
government best adapted to preserve personal liberty,
promote the general welfare, and secure the union of the
States. Leading and influential individuals also began to
deliberate upon the most effectual means of advancing the
separate interests of the states of which they respectively
were inhabitants, and it is probable that combinations
having in view the gratification of individual interests and
ambition, were early formed and organized.

It required little reasoning to convince all intelligent
men, that the plan of government, or rather union, con-
tained in the Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1777,
was not competent to preserve the Union, and at the same
time regulate the commerce of the American nation, and

OF NEW-YORK. d

enable it to discharge its debts, defray its expenses and per-
form its engagements with other nations. The old Con-
gress was, by these articles, little other than a meeting of
ambassadors from the several states : ambassadors too, who
generally speaking, had not the power to bind their princi-
pals. They, except in a very few cases, could only recom-
mend the adoption of such measures to the states as, in their
judgment, the public welfare demanded ; but the carrying
into effect of those measures depended on the voluntary
action of the respective state legislatures : hence it was
most evident that some scheme of general government
must be adopted, which would enable that government,
without the consent of all the states, to act upon the per-
sons of the citizens of each state; or the union if it could
be preserved, w^ould, for all important national purposes,
be quite useless. A few years' experience after the peace,
proved the truth of this position. What should that plan
of government be, which should remedy the evils already
experienced, and guard effectually against those which
were anticipated 1 Thinking and reflecting men in every
part of the nation turned their attention with anxious soli-
citude to this interesting and important question. All
admitted the imperfections and inadequacy of the Articles
of Confederation : all admitted that a new plan of govern-
ment or constitution ought to be devised and adopted,
but they differed widely in relation to the principles which
that constitution ought to contain, and the magnitude and
nature of powers which should be granted to the gene-
ral government.

It was this difference of opinion which produced the
first organized political parties in this state and nation.
Here, therefore, the task I have undertaken commences.
But I do not propose to enter minutely into a detail of
the movements of the leaders of the two parties to this
controversy. It is to a later period which the atten-

4 POLITICAL HISTORY

tion of the reader is more particularly invited, and in
which I shall endeavor to delineate more in detail the
character, and develop more fully the motives of the
actors in the political drama, and the causes which im-
pelled them to action.

In no state in the union was the constitution which
was recommended by the National Convention, more se-
verely criticised and more zealously opposed, and in none
was it more ardently and ably defended than in the state
of New-York. Indeed, this state may be said to have
furnished the principal author, and afterwards the cham-
pion for the defence of that instrument. It is almost vm-
necessary to say that I allude to General Alexander
Hamilton. With him were associated John Jay, whose
revolutionary services in the civil department, great legal
learning, sound discriminating mind, high moral qualities,
and unblemished purity of character, gave him a power-
ful influence with the public ; Robert R. Livingston, a
man of fine address, possessing a great landed interest in
the central coimties on the Hudson's river, standing at the
head of a powerful and influential family, and holding the
highest judicial office in the state, and Gen. Schuyler of
Albany, together with the Van Rensselaer family, possess-
ing, deservedly, great influence with the people inhabiting
the section of the state, Avhere they resided, with many
others eminent for their talents and standing in the com-
munity.

In the front ranks of the other party stood George
Clinton, who probably had a stronger hold on the affec-
tions of the people, than any other citizen of the state.
He may be said to have been the manufacturer of his own
fortune. His father was an emigrant from Ireland, and at
an early period settled in Little Britain, in the county of
Orange. Although not highly distinguished either for
wealth or talents, he was much respected for his patriotism

OF NEW-YORK.

and private virtues. He officiated as a county judgCj and
during the French vi^ar was a colonel in the British army
which invaded Canada. The property which he brought
with him from Ireland, and that which, by his industry
and economy, he accumulated in this country, enabled him
to bring up his family well, but not to leave them rich.
George was his youngest son, and was bred a lawyer.
Shortly after he completed his studies, he was appointed
by Sir Henry Clinton, the Colonial Governor, to whom
the Clinton family are said to have been distantly related,
clerk of the county of Ulster.

Mr. George Clinton was one of the earliest friends of
the American cause, and w^as in grain and in principle a
republican. He possessed a clear and logical mind, and
great decision of character. His talents and private
merit soon rendered him conspicuous among the patriots
of that day, and be was almost unanimously elected the
first Governor of the state of New-York. This election
is the more honorable to him, when it is considered that
there were at that time in the state, several distinguished
friends to American Independence, who were men of
great wealth and powerful family connections ; and that
Mr. Clinton w^as elected without any of these adventitious
aids. At the time when the controversy in relation to the
adoption of the new constitution commenced. Gov. Clin-
ton had been repeatedly elected by the people to the first
office in the state ; he had stood at the helm and dis-
charged his duty ably and faithfully during the long andx
perilous revolutionary struggle, with the fortitude of a
hero, and the zeal and devotedness of a patriot ; and
clothed as he was, by the constitution of the state, with
the power of distributing the patronage of the govern-
ment, it cannot fail to be perceived that such a man must
have been capable of producing a very great impression
upon the public mind. Among the most distinguished

6 POLITICAL HISTORY

individuals who united with him in his opposition to the
adoption of the Federal Constitution, were Robert Yates,
afterwards for a long time Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court, John Lansing a delegate from this state in the
convention that formed the constitution, and subsequently
Chief Justice and Cliancellor ; and, though last named,
by no means the least, Mr. Melancton Smith.

To exhibit the manner in which some of the points in
controversy arose between the two parties, it is proper to
state, that in pursuance of a recommendation of commis-
sioners from several states who had met at Annapolis in
INIaryland, of whom Gen. Hamilton w^as one, in Septem-
ber, 1786, " to take into consideration the trade and com-
merce of the United States, and to consider how far an
uniform system in their commercial intercourse and regu-
lations might be necessary to the common interest and
permanent happiness" of all the States, Congress, in Feb-
ruary, 1787, resolved that it was expedient that on the
second Monday in May, then next, a convention of dele-
gates who should have been appointed by the several
states, should be held at Philadelphia for the sole and ex-
press purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, and
reporting to Congress and the several legislatures, such
alterations and provisions therein as should, when agreed
to in Congress, and confirmed by the states, under the
Federal Constitution, be adequate to the exigencies of go-
vernment, and the preservation of the Union.

The views of the politicians of the state of New- York,
on the questions involved in this recommendation, were
fully developed in the debates and proceedings which
took place in the legislature which convened in the city
of New-York, in the winter of 1787. But in order pro-
perly to understand them, it is necessary to state that in
1781, in pursuance of the recommendation of Congress,
an art was passed which granted to the United States the

OF NEW-YORK. 7

import duties to be collected in the port of New-York,
and provided that those duties should be levied and collect-
ed in such manner and form, and under such penalties and
regulations J and by such officers as Congress should^ from
time to time, make^ order and appoint. But in March,
1783, {after the peace,) this act was repealed and an act
was passed again, granting the duties to the United States,
but directing their collection by officers who should be ap-
pointed by the state. This law was afterwards modified
at the request of Congress, so as to render the collectors
amenable to and removable by the authorities of the Uni-
ted States. In reference to this proceeding, Gen. Schuy-
ler, on the 4th May, 1783, w-rote to Gen. Hamilton, "Al-
though our legislature seems still inclined to confer pow-
ers on Congress adequate to the proper discharge of the
great duties of the sovereign council of these states, yet
I perceive with pain that some, chagrined at disappoint-
ment, are already attempting to inculcate a contrary prin-
ciple, and I fear it will gain too deep a root to be eradi-
cated, until such confusion prevails as will make men
deeply feel the necessity of not retaining so much sover-
eignty inthe states individually."

Mr. J. C. Hamilton, in the life of Gen. Hamilton, vol.
2, p. 387, remarks, that " early in the year seventeen hun-
dred and eighty-four, a motion was made in the legisla-
ture of New-York, urging the abolition of the offices of
superintendent of finance and of continental receiver, which
was followed by the acts establishing a custom house and
a revenue system.

*' The immense and improvident speculations made on
the return of peace, poured into the coffers of that state
a large revenue. This was subsequently increased by the
navigation acts of other states, which rendered New-York'
the entrepot of the whole region east of the Delaware,
and presented to her tempting prospects of future wealth.

8 POLITICAL HISTORY

" To whatever cause it may be attributed, it became the
settled policy of New-York to defeat the proposition for
a national revenue. A measure conforming with the re-
commendation of Congress was proposed in the legisla-
ture in seventeen hundred and eighty-four, and failed. It
was again brought forward in seventeen hundred and
eighty-fivej and again failed by two votes in the senate.

" At the close of the session of seventeen hundred and
eighty-six, in which the exertions of Schuyler to induce
the grant were most conspicuous, a law was enacted giv-
ing the revenue to Congress, but reserving to the state
' the sole power of levying and collecting' the duties ;
the conferring of which power on Congress, was an indis-
pensable and express condition of the acts of some of
the other states. Instead of making the collectors ame-
nable and removable by Congress, it subjected them to
the exclusive jurisdiction of the state courts.

"It also rendered the duties payable in the bills of
credit of the state, and thus so entirely contravened the
plan of seventeen hundred and eighty-three, as to be
equivalent to its rejection. This enactment was defended
by the argument that Congress, being a single body, and
consequently without checks, would be apt to misapply
the money arising from it."

Mr. Hamilton then proceeds to remark, that Congress
'* percei\-ing that no benefit could be derivetl from the law
recently passed by this state ; that if acceded to, the acts
of twelve adopting states (for Rhode Island had mean-
while concurred) would, by their conditions, which requi-
red the concurrence of all the states, become void ; that
the provision which rendered the duties payable in bills
of credit was most pernicious, as it would, on the same
principle, admit of all the paper money of the other States
at various rates of depreciation, thus reducing the revenue,
producing an inequality in the public burdens, and deter-

OF NEW-YORK. 9

ring the states averse from paper money from engat^ing
in the measure — Congress treated it as a nullity."

Mr. H. adds that they thereupon " passed a resolution
requesting Governor Clinton to convene the legislature
for the purpose of submitting this subject again to its
consideration. To this application, involving such mo-
mentous consequences, Clinton replied by letter, stating
that ' he entertained the highest deference and respect
for the authority of Congress, and that it would afford
him the greatest pleasure to have it in his power to com-
ply wdth their recommendations, but that he had not the
power to convene the legislature before the time fixed by
law for their stated meeting, except upon ' extraordinary
occasions;'' and as the present business had already been
particularly laid before them, and so recently as at their last
session received their determination, it cannot come within
that description.' "

The Governor, in his speech to the legislature at the
opening of the session of -which I am speaking, gave a
statement of this application which Congress had made to
him to call an extra meeting of that body; and his reasons
for refusing to comply with the request, being the same as
that which he had assigned in his reply to Congress, name-
ly, that inasmuch as the legislature had but a few months
before deliberated upon and solemnly decided that very
question, he could not consider the recommendation of
Congress a circumstance which created that extraordinary
occasion contemplated by the constitution which alone au-
thorized him to require a meeting of the legislature.

On the legislature which was now in session, was de-
volved the duty of deciding w^hether this state would send
delegates to the National Convention which was to as-
semble in May following ; and if they should decide that
question in the affirmative, then it would become their
duty to select and appoint the delegates. For this reason

10 POLITICAL HISTORY

the friends of a national government early saw the neces-
sity that General Hamilton should be one of the members
of the State legislature, and take a part in the discussion
of these important and interesting questions. To eflFect
this very desirable object, the most strenuous efforts were
made at the April election to elect him a member from
the city of New-York, and by the vigorous exertions of
the merchants of that city, aided by his political friends,
he was chosen.

Gen, Schuyler, the father-in-law of Gen. H., also a
zealous friend of the establishment of an energetic nation-
al government, was at that time a member of the Senate.
The national politics of these gentlemen, both eminent
for their talents and public services, placed them in a po-
sition adverse to Gov. Clinton, and around them the op-
position in each house rallied. Mr. Hamilton had been
placed at the head of the committee to draw an answer
to the Governor's speech, and he drew one which was
silent in respect to that part of it which stated his refusal to
call an extra session of the legislature at the request of
Congress. The friends of the governor, the leading and
strono- man among whom was Samuel Jones, a very learned
and able lawyer, afterwards Comptroller, and the father of
the late Chancellor Jones, offered an amendment to the an-
swer, as reported by Mr. Hamilton, approving of the con-
duct of the governor in refusing to convene the legislature
upon the occasion to which I have referred. On the ques-
tion of adopting this amendment, an interesting debate
ensued, conducted principally by Mr. Hamilton and Mr.
Jones. The point in controversy, was whether the occa-
sion of the proposed call was such an extraordinary one
as, by the constitution, authorized and required the go-
vernor to make such call ; but in the progress of the dis-
cussion, the claims of the confederated States on this
state, and the relations which it had and ought to have

or NEW- YORK. 11

with the confederacy, were considered. This opened a
wide field of debate, which was conducted with great
abihty and some asperity, on both sides. On the ques
lion being taken, the amendment was adopted by a vote
of 36 to 9. If this vote is to be considered as a test vote
of the strength of parties on the question, whether any
material alterations ought to be made in the Articles of
Confederation — and it probably is — it is obvious that the
anti-federalists at that time held a powerful preponderance
in the popular branch of the legislature. In the senate,
too, there was a large majority who concurred with the
governor. The legislature decided in favor of sending
delegates to the National Convention, and appointed three
delegates. The political principles of the two houses
accounts for the reason why a majority of the delegates,
(Mr. Yates and Mr. Lansing) were opposed to any mate-
rial alteration in the Articles of Confederation, or rather
to the formation of a new government^ while the election
of Gen. Hamilton by the same bodies of men, so large a
proportion of whom accorded with the views of Gov.
Clinton, affords a demonstration of the liberality with
which the partizans of that day conducted towards each
other. So far from making a war of extermination on
their opponents, or treating them as enemies to the coun-
try, the majority of the legislature of 1787 were willing
and desirous that the views and wishes of the minority
should be represented in the grand National Conven-
tion about to be held ; and therefore elected General
Hamilton, their most able, zealous and ultra opponent, as
one of the delegates.

By a reference to the resolution authorizing the appoint-
ment of delegates to the National Convention, it will be
seen with what extreme caution and jealousy of their
rights as an independent sovereignty, the New-York le-
gislature consented to become a party to that convention.

12 POLITICAL HISTORY

The resolution declared that the delegates were appointed,
" for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles
of Confefleration, and reporting to Congress and the seve-
ral legislatures such alterations and amendments therein,
as shall, when agreed to in Congress, and confirmed by
the several states under the Federal Constitution be ade-
quate to the exigencies of the government, and preserva-
tion the union."

The National Convention assembled at Philadelphia, at
the time appointed by Congress.

In reviewing the proceedings of that distinguished as-
semblage of men, it will be found that they were divided
into three classes-
One portion of them desired to confine the convention
to an enlargement of the powers of the then existing Con-
federacy, or rather to an aTnendment of the Articles of Con-
federation. To this object the delegates from New-York
were, by the above resolution, in the opinion of Messrs.
Yates and Lansing, restricted ; accordingly these gentle-
men, after a majority of the convention had determined
to propose a constitution which, instead of amending
would abolish the articles of the confederacy, withdrew
from it, though in the midst of its most active operations;
but Mr. Hamilton elected to remain on his own responsi-
bility, and take a part in the deliberations of that body.
The delegates from New-Jersey and Delaware, and the
celebrated Luther Martin of Maryland, entertained views
, similar to those of Mr. Yates and Mr. Lansing in respect
to the proper business and duty of the convention. The
opinion of these gentlemen may be inferred from the re-
solutions proposed by Mr. Patterson from New Jersey.
(See Pitkin's U. S. History, 229.)

The only material alteration in the Articles of Confede-
ration proposed by these resolutions, seems to be the crea-
tion of an executive department to consist of one or more

OF NEW-YORK. 13

individuals who were to possess very little power, except
that of appointing certain officers and directing military
operations, the creation of a judiciary, or rather a court
of admiralty, and a declaration that the constitutional
acts of Congress and all treaties should be the supreme
law of the states. The resolution further proposed " that
if any state, or body of men in any state, should oppose or
prevent the carrying into effect such acts, or treatres, the
federal executive should be authorized to call forth the
powers of the confederated states sufficient to compel
obedience to such acts, or enforce an observance of such
treaties."

The antipodes to this project were headed in the con-
vention by Gen. Hamilton, whose desire was to create a
strong government, purely national. Mr. Hamilton's plan
was that the members of the house of representatives
should be chosen for three years ; that the states should
be divided into districts for the purpose of an election hi/
the people, of electors who should elect the senators; that
the people of the same districts should choose electors
who were to elect electors of president — the senators and
president to hold their offices during good behaviour j the
president to have a negative on all bills which might pass
both branches of the legislature; to have the power, with
the advice of the senate, to make treaties, to have the
sole appointment of the heads of departments, and the
appointment of all other offices by consent of the senate.
His plan of a judiciary establishment, was in substance,
the same as that which was finally adopted; he proposed
that all impeachments should be tried by a court to con-
sist of the chief or senior judge of the superior courts of
law in each state, provided such judge held his office du-
ring good behaviour, and had a permanent salary, and
that the laws of the states, contrary to the constitution
and laws of the United States should be utterly void^

14 POLITICAL HISTORY

But the most important innovation upon the sovereignty of
the states proposed by Gen. Hamilton was, that the go-
vernors of the states should be appointed by the pre-
sident and senate, and that they should have an unquali-
fied veto on all the laws which might be attempted to be
passed by the state legislatures of which they respectively
were governors.*

* Gen. Hamilton, it would seem, afterwards changed his opiniou as to the pro
priety of a constitutioaal provision that the President should hold his office du-
ring good behaviour; or rather subsequent reflection convinced him that the de-
mocratic propensities of the people of the United States were so strong that poli-
cy required that an experiment should be made of electing a President periodical-
ly. In the subjoined letter, which he wrote to Col. Timothy Pickering more than
eleven years afterwards, he states the views he adopted before the adjournment
of the convention. From the whole tenor of this letter as well as from other
ftcts and declarations of his, which I may hereafter have occasion to notice, it is
evident that so late as the year 1603, which it will be remembered was shortly be-
fore his death, he had very little faith in the position that the people of the United
States were capable of sustaining a democra,tic or even a republican representa-
tive govermnent. He thought, however, "it was in itself right and proper that
the republican theory should have a fair arid full trial;" and with this view he re-
luctantly consented that the national executive should be periodically elected,
and ultimately to other innovations that the majority of the convention, made up-
on his scheme. But I will give his letter to BIr. Pickering, which, it appears, was
written for the purpose of allaying the prejudices which were rife against him ia
consequence of his aristocratic principles. In my judgment it is calculated to
produce a different and contrary effect.

" New-York, Sept. 16, 1803.

" My Dear Sir — I will make no apology for my delay in answering your inquiry
some time since made, because I could offer none that would satisfy myself. I
pray you only to believe that it proceeded from any thing rather than want of re-
spect or regard. I shall now comply with your request.

" The highest toned propositions, which I made in the convention, were for a
president, senate, and judges during good behaviour — a house of representatives
for three years. Though I would have enlarged the legislative power of the gene-
eral government, yet I never contemplated the abolition of the state governments;
but, on the contrary, they were, in some particulars, constituent parts of my
plan.

" This plan was in my conception conformable with the strict theory of a go-
vernment purely republican ; the essential criteria of which are, that the princi-
pal organs of the executive and legislative departments be elected by the people,
and hold their offices by a responsible and temporary or defeasible tenure.

"Avotewas taken on the proposition respecting the executive. Five states
were in favor of it; among these Virginia; and though from the manner of voting,
by delegations, individuals were not distinguished, it was morally certain, from
the known situation of the Virgmia members, (six in number, two of them, Ma-
ton and Randolph, professing popular doctrines,) that Madison must have concur-
red in the vote of Virginia. Thus, if I sinned against republicanism; Mr. Madisoa
mis not less guilty.

OF NEW-YORK. 15

Between these two ultra classes, the one advocating a
strong aristocratic national government ; and the other
democratic governmentsj by the respective states, united
by articles of confederation, varying in substance very
little from a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, be-
tween independent nations, a third parti^ was formed in
the convention, which proposed the formation of a go-
vernment partly national and partly federal ; a govern-
ment elective and representative in its character, but which
should represent the people in their numerical strength, and
the states in their sovereign capacity. The people of the
union were to be represented in one branch of the le-
gislature and the states in the otherj while the national
executive was to be created partly by the people and
partly by the states. This scheme was substantially
sketched in a series of resolutions offered by Mr. Ran-
dolph of Virginia, and probably mainly drawn by Mr. Ma-
dison, and from thence called " the Virginia plan.^^ (2
Pit. 226. 2 Ham.) A sufficient number of the ultras on
each side yielded to this middle course to constitute a ma-
jority of the convention ; and hence our present constitu-
tion, exclusive of the amendments subsequently proposed
and made a part of it, was reported by the convention,
and recommended by that body to be adopted by the states.

But the recommendation of the convention produced
little effect on the opponents of their plan of government
in the state of New-York.

One ground upon which the anti-federalists, (for so

" I may truly then say, that I never proposed either a president or senate for
life ; and that I neither recommended nor meditated the annihilation of the state
governments.

"And I may add, that in the course of the discussions in the convention, neither
the propositions thrown out for debate, nor even those voted in the earlier sta-
ges of deliberation, were considered as evidences of a definitive opinion in the
proposer or voter. It appeared to me to be in some sort understood, that with a
view to free investigation, experimental propositions might be made, which were
tn be leceived merely as suggestions for consideration.

16 POLITICAL HISTORY

the opponents of the constitution were denominated) -who
were citizens of the large states, founded their opposition,
was that the new constitution sacrificed too much to the
small states. A moment's reflection will shew that there
was much that was plausible, and indeed substantial in
this objection. The new constitution proposed a volun-
tary surrender of political power by one class of men to
another. To form a correct notion of the sacrifice on the
part of the great states, it is only necessary to consider
the matter in the light in which the question would be
viewedjif it were an original one, and now for the first time
presented to us. I will suppose the state of Delaware to
contain sixty thousand inhabitants, and that the state of
New-York contains two millions. The United States se-
nate is a co-ordinate branch of the law making power.
Besides posessing equal, or all but equal power in the en-
actment of laws with the house of representatives, it
is a controlling branch of the treaty making power, (and
treaties are, by the fiat of the constitution, made the su-
preme law of the land) and it is an important branch of
the appointing power, holding an imconditional veto on
the distribution of all the patronage of the national go-
vernment. Now suppose Delaware were to request New-
York to give her as much power in this department of the
national legislature, or which would be the same in sub-
stance, should ask that one citizen of Delaware should
possess as much power in the U. S. senate as thirty-three
citizens of the state of New-York 1 It strikes me that
such a proposition, if it were now for the first time made,
would not be very favorably entertained here. If such a
proposal should not be regarded as a project to create a
rotten boroush system, I am quite sure it would be con-
sidered as very much like it. The manner in which this
objection was answered, is too obvious and too well
known to render it necessary tc Tepeat it. But the great

OF NEW-YORK. 17

and absorbing ground of opposition, was that the propo-
sed constitution entirely departed from the principles of a
confederacy, and constituted, as was contended, a conso-
lidated national government vested with extensive powers,
operating not upon the states but upon individuals; that it
divested the states of their sovereignty; that it clothed the
President with so much power and patronage, as in the
hands of an unprincipled ambitious man would enable
him to subvert the liberties of the people and usurp
to himself despotic power ; and that the people them-
selves were not secured against the gradual encroachment
upon their rights, by the legislative, judicial and execu-
tive departments of the national government, by a bill
of rights. " Should the system," said the ardent and elo-
quent Patrick Henry, " go into operation, what will the
states have to do 1 To take care of the poor, repair and
make highways, erect bridges, and so on, and so on. Abo-
lish the state legislatures at once. For what purpose
should they be retained 1" 2 Pit. 273.

Gov. Clinton and his friends tenaciously adhered to
the principles contained in the resolution of the New-
York legislature for the appointment of delegates to the
national convention. That resolution, they contended,
confined the action of the delegates to the business of
amending the Articles of Confederation, and by no means
authorized them to create a new- constitution.

Although the population of this state was then compa-
ratively small, amounting probably to about two hundred
and fifty thousand souls, the sagacity and the clear vision
of Gov. Clinton and other distinguished opponents of the
national scheme, must have enabled them to foresee the
high destiny of the state of New-York. They no doubt
took into consideration the facts that its territory stretch-
ed from the Atlantic ocean to the great inland seas of the
west; that its southern frontier included the best harbor in

2

18 POLITICAL HISTOKY

North America, and perhaps in the world ; that its soil
was incomparably rich and luxuriant ; that water power
for driving all kinds of machinery for manufacturing pur-
poses was abundant in every part of the state; that its fa-
cilities for artificial internal navigation were greater than
any other equal portion of the known world ; that its cli-
mate was adapted to the production of a hardy and enter-
prizing race of men, and was remarkably salubrious, and
that nature had so formed our coast that the foreign trade
for North America would naturally centre at the port of
New-York. This prospective view must have convinced
them that New-York would become, what in fact she
now is, THE EMPIRE STATE. It is not, therefore, at all
surprising that her citizens should have scrutinized with
an anxious and jealous eye, a scheme which, if carried out,
might lessen the importance of the state, and would throw
into a general fund, or common national stock, that rich
revenue which would not fail of being gathered from
goods imported into the city of New-York.

Mr. Clinton, being governor, was the distributor of near-
ly all the state patronage. He was also ex-officio com-
mander of the army and admiral of the navy. It was,
therefore, more than insinuated by political writers of the
day, that personal ambition and a love of power had a
controling influence in inducing him to oppose the adop-
tion of the federal constitution ; or at any rate that sinis-
ter views and feelings sharpened his opposition, and added
fire to his zeal.

It is somewhat remarkable that Gov. Clinton in his speech
to the legislature in 1778, although the United States Con-
stitution must have been long before that time reported
and published, and although it had been recommended
that the legislature of each state should provide by law
for the choice of delegates by the people to decide on
the question whether the proposed constitution should be

OF NEW-iORK. 19

adopted, was wholly silent on that subject. He does not
make the slightest allusion to that great and important
question, which, while he was penning his speech, he well
knew excited the anxious solicitude of all men, not only
in this, but in every state in the Union.

The subject was, however, brought before the legisla-
ture on the 17th of January, 1788, by a resolution offer-
ed by Mr. Egbert Benson, the purport of which was that
a convention, the members of which should be elect-
ed by the people, should be called in pursuance of the
recommendation of Congress. Mr. Schoonmaker, a mem-
ber from Ulster, thereupon proposed a preamble to the
resolution to the following effect : " Whereas the said
convention of the states, instead of revising and reporting
alterations and revisions in the Articles of Confederation,
have reported a new constitution for the United States,
which, if adopted, would materially alter the constitution
and government of this state, and greatly affect the rights
and privileges of the people thereof." Therefore, &c.

Mr. Jones in support of this preamble, said, "when the
members of the convention were elected, they were au-
thorized only to amend the constitution and make such
alterations therein as upon being confirmed by Congress^
and the respective state legislatures would be more adequate
to the preservation of the Union. * » * The conven-
tion had gone beyond their powers, and instead of amendr
ing the constitution, had framed a new one.^^

The resolution, however, for the call of a state con-
vention finally passed both branches of the legislature.

The election of delegates took place in the spring of
1788. The sole question which appears to have govern-
ed the electors in the choice of delegates, was whether
the candidates were for or against the adoption of the new
constitution. The people of the northern nnd middle
counties were generally against, and of the southern

20 POLITICAL HISTORY

counties in favor of the measure. Very acrimonious pub-
lications appeared in pamphlets and in the newspapers on
each side of the question. There were also wnritten and
published many very able dissertations both for and against
the new scheme of government, and it was about this peri-
od that the celebrated numbers of the Federalist, written by
Hamilton, Jay and ^ladison were published, extensively
circulated and generally read.

In the city of New-York, John Jay, Alexander Hamil-
ton, Chancellor Livingston, Richard Morris, then chief
• justice, and James Duane, mayor of the city, were chosen.
The strength of the federal party in the city of New-
York, and the personal popularity of Mr. Jay, may be
inferred from the fact that out of 2833 votes, which were
the whole number taken, he received 2735.

In the county of Albany, where the new constitution
had been burned, it is said, in presence of some of the
officers of the city of Albany,* Abraham Ten Broeck,

* The occasion which produced ibis occurrence, was as 1^..^. . ;. The federal-
ists of Albany on receiving news that the constitution had been ratified by the requi-
site number of states, appointed a day to celebrate the event. Having met on
that day, they formed into a procession with the intention of marching through
the principal streets of the city. They were led by Gen. Schuyler and Stephen
Van Rensselaer. The anti-federalists on the same day came together ; and some
inflammatory speeches were made, and the constitution was burnt. While thus
highly e.Tcited, the two panics met in Green-street, and the anti-federalists pro-
jected a scheme of preventing the march of the federalists through that street.
They procurred a cannon and loaded it with i>ebbles and gravel, with a view to
discharge it in case the federalists should have the temerity to attempt to force a
passage ; but some of the more reflecting and raoderate anti-federalists, in order
to prevent such an outrage, without the knowledge of the majority of their poli-
tical friends spiked the cannon. The belligerent parties were, however, by this
time so much excited, that this prudent precaution did not prevent an affray.

Many of the federalists with a view of adding to the pomp of their celebration,
were clad in military dress, and carried with them swords, guns and bayonets.
It is now uncertain which party committed the first net of violence ; it is only
certain that they came to blows, and that the anti-federalists threw .brick-bats
and paving stones at the federalists, and were in their turn assailed with cutlas-
ses and bayonets. Several person= were dangerously wounded, bnt fortunately
none were fatally injured. Isaac Dis«:«tsos, Esq., of Albany, who. though at that
time quite young, was an eye witness of this transaction, has favoird me with
this account. Peter W. Yates, at that day a lawyer of considerable eminence,
was oD« of the most active leaders ^f the anti-federalists in this fracas, and

OF NEW-VORK. 21

Jacob Cuyler, Francis NicoU, J. Bloodgood, Peter Gan-
sevoort, (the late Gen. Gansevoortj) John Lansing, jr.,
Robert Yates, Henry Outhout, Peter Vrooman, T. A.
Ten Eyck, and Derick Swart, were the anti-federal candi-
dates, and were elected.

The general result through the state, was that New-York,
Westchester, Kings and Richmond counties chose federal-
ists; the counties of Albany, Montgomery, Washington,
Columbia, Dutchess, Ulster and Orange anti-federalists,
and the delegations from Suffolk and Queens, were divi-
ded. The whole number of delegates was 67. This
statement of their number and political character, is taken
from the Albany Gazette of July, 1788, and which pur-
ports to have been copied by the Gazette from a Pough-
keepsie Journal which contained the proceedings of the
convention. Mr. William Jay, in his life of John Jay,
(1 vol. p. 266) states the number of delegates at fifty-se-
ven, and of this number he says '* no less than forty-six
were anti-federalists.'' In this I think he must have been
incorrect.

Besides the eminent men elected from the cities of
New-York and Albany, Gov. Clinton was chosen from
the county of Ulster, Gen. James Clinton, the father of
De Witt Clinton, from the county of Orange; Melancton
Smith from the county of Dutchess, and sundry other em-
inent men from the counties situate on the North River.
Indeed I think it reasonable to believe that this conven-
tion contained, if not all, a very large proportion of the
men of influence and talents who were then on the poli-
tical stao;e.

would probably have lost his life in the conflict, if he had not been saved by the
address of Mr. Pennison, and furnished by him with a place of snfety. Mr. Abra-
ham G. Lansing, another anti-federalist, was also exposed to imminent danger.
This, I believe, was the only instance in which the public peace was violated
<luriog this controversy.

22 POLITICAL HISTORY

It was organized on the 17th June, 1788, by the ap-
pointment of George Clinton president; and it immediate-
ly proceeded to form a code of rules for its government.
On the 19th, the discusssion commenced.

Chancellor Livingston opened the debate by a very elo-
quent address to the convention. He pointed out the ne-
cessity of the union to this state, especially on account
of its peculiar local situation. He traced genei-ally the
leadino; and radical defects of the then existing confede-
ration, and strongly urged the magnitude and importance
of the question then to be considered; and the duty of the
members of the convention, that they should divest them-
selves of every preconceived prejudice, and deliberate
with the utmost coolness, moderation and candor.

The discussion of the various clauses of the constitu-
tion continued three weeks, during which several impor-
tant amendments were proposed and adopted. In addi
tion to the amendments which had been proposed by the
convention of Massachusetts, (for which see 2d Pitkin's
Civil and Political History of the United States, 267— S,)
the New-York convention proposed (2 Ham. 281) " among
others of less importance, that no persons, except natural
born citizens, or such as were citizens on or before the
4th of July, 1776, or held commissions under the United
States during the war, and had since July 4th, 1776, be-
come citizens of some one of the states, should be eligible
to the places of president, vice-president, or members of
congress — that no standing army be kept up in time of
peace, without the assent of two thirds of both houses —
that congress should not declare war without the same
majority — that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus
should not be suspended for a longer term than six months
— that no capitation tax should ever be laid — that no per-
son be eligible as a senator for more than six years in any
term of twelve years ; and that the state legislatures might

OF KEW-YORK. 23

recall their senators — that no member of Congress be ap-
pointed to any office under the authority of the United
States — that the power of Congress to pass laws of bank-
ruptcy, should only extend to merchants and other tra-
ders— ihat no person be eligible to the office of president
a third time — that the president should not command an
army in the field without the previous consent of Congress
— that Congress should not constitute any tribunals or in-
ferior courts, with any other than appellate jurisdiction^
except in causes of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction,
and for the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the
high seas ; and in all other cases, to which the judicial
power of the United States extended, and in which the
supreme court had not original jurisdiction, the causes
should be heard in the state courts, with right of appeal
to the supreme or other courts of the United States — that
the court for the trial of impeachments should consist of
the senate, the judges of the supreme court of the United
States, and the senior judge of the highest court in each
state — that persons aggrieved by any judgment of the su-
preme court in any case in which that court had original
jurisdiction, should be entitled to a review of the same by
commmissioners, not exceeding seven, to be appointed by
the president and senate — that the judicial power should
extend to no controversies respecting land^ unless relating
to claims of territory or jurisdiction between states or be-
tween individuals, or between states and individuals under
grants of different states — that the militia should not be
compelled to serve without the limits of the state for a long-
er term than six weeks ^ without the consent of the legislature
thereof — and that Congress should not impose any excise
on any article, (ardent spirits excepted,) of the growth,
production, or manufacture of the United States, or any
of them.

24

POLITICAL HISTORY

On the 11th of July, Mr. Jay moved " that the consti-
tution be ratified, and that \vhatever amendments miffht
be deemed expedient, should be recommended.'''' This
motion called out the most vigorous opposition on the
part of the anti-federalists. They had been elected with
the express understanding that unless the proposed consti-
tution should be materially altered, they should vote for
its rejection ; and no doubt they sincerely believed it
would be unsafe to adopt it, as it came from the hands
of the national convention. They therefore proposed
to amend Mr. Jay's resolution so that it should read, " that
the constitution be ratified on the condition that certain
specified amendments should be made. A lonof, able and
eloquent discussion fol lowed j but before any decisive vote
was taken, news arrived that the convention of New-
Hampshire had adopted the constitution as reported by
the national convention. It will be recollected that by
an article of the constitution, when nine states should ra-
tify it, it was then declared adopted, and of course the re-
maining states, which refused their assent to its adoption,
were to be considered as seceding from the Union. The ra-
tification of the constitution by New-Hampshire, furnished
evidence that the requisite number of the states had adopt-
ed it. After the news of this event was received at
Poughkeepsie, the question which the New-York conven-
tion had to decide was changed. It was no longer a ques-
tion whether they preferred the new constitution to the
Articles of Confederation ; but the true question now
was, whether they would secede from the Union ? And
here, in passing, I take leave to remark that Gov. Clin-
ton and his friends discovered a defect in policy or party
tact, in postponing to so late a day, the meeting of the
New-York convention (for they had the power to fix the
time of meeting,) because, if they had appointed an ear-
lier day, the state of New-York, being at that time a cen-

or NEW-YORK. ■ 25

tral state, and even then influential and powerful, if it
had early decided against the constitution, its opinion and
decision might have had sufficient influence with the other
states to have prevented so many as nine of them from
adopting it. This the anti-federalists should have done,
instead of waiting until nine or ten states had met and
decided in its favor, and thus changing the character and
nature of the question from one of constitution making,
to a question involving in it the tremendous consequence
of a secession from the Union.

The federalists now proposed to amend the amendment
offered by the anti-federalists, by substituting the words
^^ in full confidence''' for the words" on condition^'' so that
Mr. Jay's resolution would read,

" Resolved^ That the constitution be ratified in full con-
fidence that the amendments proposed by this convention
will be adopted."

To this resolution, a resolution of immense moment, a
portion of the anti-federalists — I presume, under the con-
fidential advisement of Gov. Clinton, (forMelancton Smith,
his constant and unwavering friend, the man whom Gen.
Hamilton regarded as his most formidable opponent, was
one of them) — with great hesitation and reluctance, yielded
their assent.

They were no doubt deeply, impressed with the idea
that New-York was sacrificing too much political poAver,
and too great a proportion of the natural advantages secu-
red to her by her geographical position, and with the
painful apprehension that so much power by the proposed
constitution was conferred on the general government, as
might endanger the personal liberty of the citizen, and
the independence of the states. On the other hand, the
confusion then prevailing in the commercial regulations
of the different statesj the jealousies and collisions which
it was reasonable to anticipate would grow up, and

26 POLITICAL HISTORY

already began to shew themselves among the states; the
prostration of the credit of the national confederacy which
at that time had occurred; the want of confidence evinced
by the European governments in the ability of Congress
to enforce the performance of treaties; the incompetency
•of the Articles of Confederation to enable Congress to
regulate commerce, to resuscitate public credit and compel
the performance of treaties; the improbability that the
requisite number of states would concur in such amend-
ments to the Articles of Confederation as suited the views
of the anti- federalists; the danger which would inevitably
result to the state of New-York, by a secession of that
state from the Union; and the already threatened determi-
nation of the old southern district to separate from the
other part of the state, and become an integral portion of
that section of the Union which should adopt the constitu-
tion in case the convention should reject it, finally induced
a suflficient number of the anti-federal members of the
convention to vote in favor of the adoption of the consti-
tution, as with the federalists to constitute a small majo-
rity of that body.

On this solemn occasion, Mr. Gilbert Livingston, who
had been elected as an anti-federalist, and in truth was
such, is reported to have expressed his own views, and
probably the view^s and feelings of the political friends
who acted with him, in the following manner:

" Mr. President — I hope for indulgence from this hono-
rable house, that I may shortly state the reasons which
actuate me, for taking the part I do in the business before
us. The great and final question on the constitution is
now to be taken. Permit me, sir, again to say, that I
have had a severe struggle in my mind between duty and
prejudice. I entered this house as fully determined on
previous amendments, (I sincerely believe,) as any one
member in it. Nothing, sir, but a conviction that I am

OF NEW-VORK. 21

serving the most essential interests of my country, could
ever induce me to take another ground, and differ from so
many of my friends on this floor. I think, sir, I am in
this, pursuing the object I had at first in view — the real
good of my country. With respect to the constitution
itself, I have the same idea I ever had — that is, that there
is not safety under it unless amended. Sometime after
we first met, sir, a majority of those in this house who
opposed it, did not determine to reject it. Only one
question then remained — which was the most eligible mode
to ensure a general convention of the states, to reconsider
it, in order to have the essential amendments engrafted in
it ? I do not mean to go into the reasons which have
repeatedly been urged on this head, but only to say, that
on the most mature and deliberate reflection on this mo-
mentous occasion, the result of my judgment is, that the
adoption of the resolution on the table, with the bill of
rights and amendments contained in it, and the circular
letter to the different states accompanying it, is, consider-
ing our present situation with respect to our sister states,
the wisest and best measure we can possibly pursue. I
shall therefore vote for it.

"As an American, I am proud of my country — as a
whig, I love it, and feel the duty of guarding its rights
and freedom to the utmost of my power. And, sir, con-
sidering my situation in this house, as a representative of
a respectable county, I feel the weight of duty increasing
in a redoubled proportion.

" Sir, I know I was elected a member of this convention
from a confidence the people had in my integrity; and,
sir, I trust I am at this instant giving them an unques-
tionable evidence of it. The people of the county I have
the honor to represent, are, in general, thinking and sen-
sible, and I have not the least doubt, but they soon will,

28 POLITICAL HISTORY

if they at present do not, see the propriety of the measure
here pursued.

" But, sir, I would beg leave to mention another consi-
deration, of a nature infinitely superior to anything which
possibly can be put in competition with it, as a motive of
action — an approving conscience, and an approving God.
I must hereafter stand at a bar, where, if the most trifling
conduct must be accounted for, (and which I fully be-
lieve,) truly this most important transaction of my life
will be strictly scrutinized. To that awful Being who
will there preside, I would, with due submission and hu-
mility, appeal for the rectitude of my intentions. I hope,
sir, the house will pardon me for having been so personal
in this address. I owe it, sir, to them as well as myself,
especially to a part of our side of the house, who I have
no doubt, are actuated by the purest motives, and are
equally consciencious with myself, on this occasion; and
with whom and every friend to his country, I will steadily
persevere in every possible means to procure this desira-
ble object — a revision of the constitution. For a con-
sistency in conduct to this honorable house, to my consti-
tuents, and to my country, on this occasion, with the
utmost cheerfulness do I submit myself."

The final vote was taken soon after the delivery of this
speech. Fifty-seven members, exclusive of the President,
(Gov. Clinton,) were present, thirty of whom voted for
the ratification of the constitution, and twenty-seven
against it. Mr William Jay (2 Jay, 269.) says the con-
stitution was adopted by a majority of two votes only.
In this he errs — I have now before me the names of those
who voted and the manner in which they voted. There
was a majority of three in favor of the constitution.

This momentous decision took place on 26th July, 1788.
A correspondent from Poughkeepsie on this occasion

OF NEW-YORK. 29

wrote to his Inend in New- York in the following rather
sarcastic manner:

" After ratifying, his excellency the President, according
to a notice given last Thursday, addressed the convention
very politely. The purport of which was, that until a
convention was called to consider the amendments now
recommended by this convention, the probability was
that the body of the people who are opposed to the con-
stitution would not be satisfied ; he would, however, as
far as his power and influence would extend, endeavor to
keep up peace and good order among them. To which
the members and spectators were very attentive, and more
than a common pleasantness appeared in their counte-
nances."

A circular letter drawn by Mr. Jay, addressed to the
other states of the Union, earnestly requesting ihem to
co-operate with this state in an effort to obtain, by means
of a convention to be called for that purpose, the adoption
of the amendments which the New-York convention had
annexed to their ratification, was then read and subscrib-
ed by all the members present. The convention immedi-
ately afterwards adjourned without day.

30

POLITICAL HISTORY

CHAPTER II.

FROM THE ADOPTION OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, TO THE
GENERAL STATE ELECTION IN 17W.

After the adoption of the federal constitution, and the
organization of a national government in pursuance of it,
and the unanimous election of Gen. Washington for the
first President, all disputes about the principles contained
in the constitution seemed for a moment to subside, and
all men appeared to unite in supporting the general go-
vernment in the exercise of its legitimate functions.
Judge Yates, Avhom we have seen zealously opposing the
constitution, both in the national and state conventions,
a few days after the ratification at Poughkeepsie, in giv-
ing a charge to the grand jury in Albany, stated to them
that, although " before the constitution was ratified he had
been opposed to it, it was now his and every other man's
duty to support it." But notwithstanding this apparent
general acquiescence, the parties which had been formed
in the state of New-York, on the question of adopting the
United States constitution, still continued to exist, although
the cause of their political association had ceased. The
patronage of the national government, through the influ-
ence of Gen. Hamilton, Mr. Jay and Gen. Schuyler with
the president, was generally bestowed upon men either
personally or politically hostile to Gov. Clinton; and
Gen. Hamilton, it will be found, always spoke of him un-
favorably. Accordingly, John Jay was appointed chief
justice of the United Statesj James Duane judge of the
district of New-York; Richard Harrison, United States
attorney, and William S. Smith, marshal; all active and
zealous opponents of Gov. Clinton. Gen. Hamilton
himself, who was at the head of the opposition to the

OF NEW- YORK. 31

Clinton party, and was indeed the life and soul of that
opposition, was made secretary of the treasury of the
United States. Although these gentlemen were all of
them eminently fitted for the offices to which they were
respectively appointed, yet while such men as Melancton
Smith, Judge Yates, &c. &c. were to be found among-
the friends of Gov. Clinton, it is not to be presumed that
this exclusive selection of his opponents as the recipients
of the bounty of the United States government, would
have been made in the entire absence of party views.
There seems to me good reasons for believing that the
design of Gen. Hamilton and his federal friends in this
state, who had the ear of Washington, was, so to use the
national patronage as to curtail the influence of Gov.
Clinton, and finally prostrate both him and his party.
But Mr. Clinton was still strong in the affections of the
people. A majority of the legislature was with him, and
the absolute control he held over the patronage of the
state, gave him an influence far greater than the patronage
of the general government would have conferred on any
individual citizen, if the power of distributing it had been
vested in that individual alone.

There were in the constitution of this state, which was
adopted in 1777, two anomalies. The one was the coun-
cil of revision, composed of the chancellor, judges of
the supreme court and governor, which held a nega
tive upon all laws unless passed by two-thirds of both
houses of the legislature; and the other was, the organi-
zation of the appointing power. That power was created
in the following manner: The state, lor the purpose of
electing senators, was divided into four great districts,
the southern, middle, eastern and western. Out of each
district, once in every year, the assembly were required
openly to nominate and appoint one senator, which sena-
tors when thus selected, were, together with the governor,

32 POLITICAL HISTORY

to form a council of appointment. The governor had a
right to give a casting vote, but had no vote for any other
purpose. He was constituted the president of this board,
and by the 23d article of the constitution, he was required
"with the advice and consent of the council, to appoint
all officers" whose appointment was not otherwise pro-
vided for in that constitution. Under this clause, the
governor claimed and exercised, and in my judgment,
rightfully, (although that claim, when attempted to be
exercised by Gov. Clinton's successor, was resisted,) the
exclusive right of nomination. All civil and militarv
officers, from the heads of the departments, chancellor
and judges of the supreme court, down to and including
all justices of the peace and auctioneers, with the excep-
tion of the state treasurer and a few petty city and town
officers, w^ere thus in effect, appointed by the governor.

Perhaps it may be as well to remark in this place as
any other, that the form of the government of New-
York, was originally less democratic than that of any
other state in the Union. This was probably owing to
two causes. The one was, that at the commencement of
the revolution, there was more of aristocracy here than in
any other state. In the city of New-York, there were
several wealthy, and what, although the country was
young, may be called ancient families. In Westchester
were the Morrises and Van Cortlands; along the North
river, were the Livingstons, Coldens, &c.j at Albany,
were the Van Rensselaers and Schuylers; and as far west
as Johnstown, the powerful and popular Sir William
Johnson had stationed himself. Several of these families
held large tracts of land, and derived a princely support
from a numerous tenantry. Such a condition of things
must have created diflferent manners, a different current of
thought and reasoning, and in fact, an entirely different

OF NEVV-yORK. 33

state of society from that which existed in most of our
sister states, and particularly those of New- England.

The other cause which I shall mention, is that the con-
stitution of New- York, was one of the first that w^as
framed. That pure and patriotic lover of liberty, John
Jay, who was its principal author, had neither precedent
nor experience to guide him. He knew from the history
of ancient republics, that national liberty had been of-
ten endangered and sometimes annihilated, by that state
of anarchy which resulted from vesting too much power
in the multitude ; and was anxious to guard against it.
Hence the independent tenure of office of the state ju-
diciary; hence the restriction on the right of suffrage, and
hence the immense patronage conferred by the constitu-
tion of 1777, on the executive. Mr. Jay did not at that
time know — he could not know, what a flood of light the
common school system was about to pour upon the mass
of mind. He did not anticipate that a moral revolution in
the human intellect was to succeed the political revolution
in the United States.

But if the patronage placed by the constitution in the
hands of Gov. Clinton was great, certain it is that few
men ever lived in this or any other state, who knew better
how to render that patronage subservient to the political
views of himself and his friends, and at the same time
avoid any just ground of complaint on the part of the
public. He knew men, and knew them well; and knew
how by the means within his power, to mould them to his
purposes; while his sagacity and prudence prevented him
from resorting to violent acts, or to an apparent proscrip-
tive system against those who differed from him in opinion.
In the exercise of the appointing power, his policy, though
liberal, was steady; and all his appointments seem to have
been, and no doubt were, well calculated to sustain him-
self and his party against the weight of character and in-

3

34 POLITICAL HISTORY

fluence of his opponents, wielding as they did, the whole
patronage of the general government

On the 13th Oct., 1788, the governor issued a procla-
mation requiring the legislature to meet at Albany on the
eighth day of December, alleging that events had occur-
red since their last meeting, which rendered it necessary
that they should convene at an earlier day than that fixed
by law for their annual meeting. On the day appointed,
the legislature met, and John Lansing, Jr., was unanimous-
ly elected speaker of the assembly.

The governor in his speech, stated to the two houses,
that he had convened them at that early day, that he might
seasonably lay before them the proceedings of the con-
vention at Poughkeepsie, and the ordinance of congress
for putting in operation the constitution for the United
States, which had been adopted by that convention. He
invited the attention of the legislature to the amendments
proposed by the New-York convention, and to the decla-
ration of rights which accompanied the ratification, and he
alleged that the act of ratification was assented to " on
the express confidence, that the exercise of different pow-
ers, would be suspended until it should undergo a revi-
sion by a general convention of the states." He there-
fore urged them to use their best endeavors for effecting a
measure (a general convention,) so earnestly recommend-
ed by the convention, and anxiously desired by their con-
stituents."

I cannot persuade myself that so sagacious a politician
as Gov. Clinton, seriously anticipated that another na-
tional convention would or could be called. It seems
more probable that this recommendation, and the early
call of the legislature, were intended to afford evidence of
the sincerity of his past opposition to the federal constitu-
tion, and as a manoeuvre to keep his party together in the
state of New- York. Eleven states had adopted the con-

OF NEW-YORK. 36

stitution in the form reported by the national convention,
and most of them, I believe, without suggesting any ma-
terial alterations. Was it to be expected that these states
would consent to give up all they had done, suffer the
great questions which had been settled by a majority of
the states to be again agitated, and put every thing afloat
by the call of a new convention 1

On the 15th of December, the two houses proceeded to
elect five delegates to represent the state in the continen-
tal congress. In the election of these delegates, the par-
ty lines were distinctly developed. The delegates sup-
ported by the anti-federal party in the assembly were,
Abraham Yates, Jun., David Gelston, Philip Pell, John
Hathorn, and Samuel Jones; those supported by the fe-
deralists were Ezra L'Hommedieu, Egbert Benson, Leo-
nard Gansevoort, Alexander Hamilton, and John Law-
rence. The anti-federal candidates were nominated by
the assembly by an average majority of about ten votes,
but the senate nominated Mr. L'Hommedieu and the oth-
er federal candidates. Upon a joint ballot the anti-fede-
ralists were elected. This vote shows that the federalists
had gained considerably in the assembly since the session
of 1787, and had actually obtained a majority in the senate.
It is worthy of remark that, although by the United States
constitution, the government under it was to go into ope-
ration the succeeding spring, and therefore, provision by
a law of the respective states for the appointment of elec-
tors of president and vice-president, and for the election
of senators and representatives in congress, was required
to be made, the governor in his annual address, did not
allude to the subject. The senate, however, early sent
to the assembly, a bill providing for the appointment of
presidential electors, but on the 22d of December, the
house, by a vote of 33 to 21, on the motion of Mr. Ad-
gate, rejected the bill. The assembly, on the same day,

><

36

POLITICAL HISTORY

in committee of the whole, resolved that a committee be
appointed to draft an address of the legislature to con-
gress, requesting that body as early as possible, to call a
convention for the purpose of proposing amendments to
the constitution of the United States. These acts show
very conclusively the temper and feelings of the party
which held the majority in the assembly. But I cannot
persuade myself that such men as Samuel Jones, Gilbert
Livingston, Edward Savage and other members of that
body, really entertained an expectation that a second con-
vention would be called, or that the constitution as adopt-
ed, would not go into operation. I regard their move-
ments as having been prompted solely by a desire of ex-
citing public attention, and of disciplining and more effec-
tually combining together their party, of which Gov. Clin-
ton was the head. Accordingly we find that provision was
shortly afterwards made for the appointment of electors
of president and vice-president, and on the 19th January,
Mr. Jones (an anti-federalist) introduced into the assem-
bly a bill prescribing the time and manner of choosing
senators of the United States. But the two houses could
nor agree on the mode of choosing senators, the conse-
quence of which was, that no senators in congress were
elected by that legislature, and New- York was not repre-
sented in the United States senate, during the first session
of the first congress. Presidential electors were, how-
ever, chosen, and a law was passed by the New-York le-
gislature for dividing the state into Districts, and provid-
ing for the election of six members of the house of re-
presentatives of the United States. Egbert Benson, Wil-
liam Floyd, John Hathorn, Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, and
Peter Sylvester, were, under this law, elected the first
members of congress from this state, under the present
constitution.

OF NEW-YORK. 37

During this sesicn of the New-York legislature, the
act " for the amendment of the law and better advance-
ment of justice" was passed. This important statute,
which not only greatly improved the practice of law,
but introduced some new and valuable improvements in
our system of jurisprudence, was drawn by Samuel Jones,
and probably its passage was in a great measure effected
through one or both branches of the legislature, (for it
encountered a vigorous opposition in the senate,) by his
address, talents and influence. This act, together with
many other important laws, particularly those relating to
real estate, were drawn by that great man and eminent and
learned lawyer. They are, it is true, mainly transcripts
from, and digests of, the British statutes, but the ex-
treme care and accuracy with which he executed this task^
afford decisive evidence of clearness of intellect and great
legal acumen.

The term of office of Gov. Clinton would expire in
July, 1789, the political year under the old constitution ter-
minating at that period of time. As the election for go-
vernor was to take place in April following, that circum-
stance added to the excitement in the ranks of the two
parties ; and their movements, both as respected mea-
sures and the state appointments, appear to have been
made with some reference to that event. I shall relate
one instance of the management of the governor, with
regard to an important appointment which was proposed.

The supreme court at that time consisted of three judg-
es only. It was urged, and at this juncture particularly
pressed by the federalists, that the increase of population,
business and consequent litigation in the state, required
the appointment of an additional judge ; and it will not
be forgotten that under the old constitution, the council
of appointment might, in their discretion, increase the
number of judges, it being, however, optional with the le-

38 POLITICAL HISTORY

gislature whether they would make provision for the sa-
lary of such additional judges. The members of the
council of appointment chosen, in 1788, were Jacob Swart-
wout, David Hopkins, Lewis Morris and Philip Schuyler,
a majority of whom were federalists. From a letter pur-
porting to have been written by a member of the legisla-
ture, published in the Albany Gazette, in January, 1789, it
appears that early in the session, the members of the
council, urged the governor to call them together for the
purpose of appointing a fourth judge. " He gave them
for answer," (says the letter writer,) " that when his bu-
siness would admit, and necessity required, he would do
so. The next day the house elected a new council,
consisting of Messrs, Van Ness, Williams, Townsend
and Hathorn, all anti-federalists."

The success of the federalists in procuring the adoption
of the United States constitution, and the disposition
generally manifested by the people to support the general
government, induced their leaders in New-York and Alba-
ny, to make a vigorous opposition to the re-election of
Gov. Clinton; and the open and zealous opposition he had
made to the adoption of the federal constitution, inspired
them with sanguine hopes of success. Their great diffi-
cultv was to find a suitable and strong candidate. In the
year 1785, Mr. Jay had been applied to, to stand a candi-
date for governor, by Gen. Schuyler and other distinguish-
ed federalists, but he peremptorily declined. His reasons
for declining are contained in a letter addressed by him
to Gen, Schuyler, dated June 10, 1785. They are credit-
able to him as a citizen and a patriot. He stated, that " if
a change had, in the general opinion, become not only
advisable but necessary^ and the good expected from that
change depended on Am," the objections he then made,
would have yielded to the consideration that a good citi-
zen ought cheerfully to take any station which on such

OF NEW-YORK. 39

occasions, his country might think proper to assign to
him, without in the least regarding personal consequences;
but that he had arrived at the conclusion that such occasion
did not then exist. (1 Jay, 198.) In 1789, the official
services of Mr. Jay in organizing the new national govern-
ment, were much needed; and w^e have seen that he was
soon after placed at the head of the judiciary of the United
States. He therefore was not to be thought of.

On the 11th February, a meeting of Federalists was
held in the city of New-York, at which Robert Yates was
nominated as the opposing candidate to Gov. Clinton.
At this meeting, Alexander Hamilton, Robert Troup,
Wm. Duer, Aaron Burr, and sundry other persons, were
appointed a committee of correspondence to promote the
election of Judge Yates; and on the 17th of February,
Gen. Schuyler and Gen, Abraham Ten Broeck, in con-
nection with several other citizens of Albany, together
with Philip Livingston and Richard Harrison, of New-
York, addressed a letter to him, requesting him to allow
his name to be used as a candidate for governor, with a
view to " heal the unhappy divisions in the country." To
this letter. Judge Yates replied on the 24th of February,
and consented to stand as such candidate.

The object which Gen. Hamilton and the leading fede-
ralists had in view, in selecting Mr. Yates as their candi-
date, is very obvious. It was true he had been a zealous
and efficient opponent to the adoption of the new con-
stitution, both in the state and national conventions. He
could not therefore, have been their first choice. But
the result of the preceding annual election, had indica-
ted that a majority of the electors were in favor of
sustaining Gov. Clinton, and they hoped by having
Judge Yates for their candidate, to detach from Mr.
Clinton so many of his political friends as combined
with all the federalists, would procure the election of Mr.

40 POLITICAL HISTORY

Yates. That such was the object, is rendered the more cer-
tain from the fact, that chief justice Morris — who undoubt-
edly, would have better suited the majority of the fede-
ralists, had been spoken of, and who, there is good rea-
son to believe, would have accepted the nomination, had
it been tendered to him, by his letter dated and published
27th February, three days after Judge Yates accepted the
nomination — publicly declined, alleging as a reason, that
if he continued to permit himself to be mentioned as a
candidate, the tendency would be to divide the votes of
his political friends. In fact, the federalists in their ad-
dress, according to Mr. Davis (1. Memoirs of Burr, 287.)
issued on ann6un,cing the nomination of Mr. Yates, avow
their preference to chief justice Morris. This sort of par-
ty management is generally weak and puerile, and al-
ways WTong. The legitimate base upon which parties in
a free government are founded, is an honest diiference of
opinion in respect to measures; — and this is, at any rate,
the pretence which all political parties put forth. To
support therefore, a candidate for an important office who
avows that he in principle is in favor of the measures to
W'hich we profess ourselves opposed, and upon which op-
position, our party associations are ostensibly founded, is
at once yielding the ground of principle, upon which we
stand. Probably the declaration made by Judge Yates,
in his charge to the grand jury at Albany, to which I have
before alluded, may have been used by the federal lead-
ers as an apology to their friends for supporting an anti-
federalist ; and possibly the declaration then made by Mr.
Yates, may have been made in pursuance of a previous
understanding between him and some of his former poli-
tical enemies. It will be perceived that Col. Burr was
appointed a member of the committee of correspondence,
by the meeting in New-York, held on the 21st of Febru-
ary. He therefore, it seems, was one of the anti-federal-

OF NEW-YOKK. 4]

ists who joined in the opposition to Gov. Clinton j and 1
find in the newspapers of that day that at Albany, Schenecta
dy, and several other places, meetings were held, claiming
to be exclusively anti-federal, who nevertheless resolved
to support Judge Yates. I remark, however, in passing,
that the assertion of Mr. Davis in his life of Burr, that
he uniformly acted with the democratic party, is contra-
dicted by his course at this election.

{April, 1789.) — The election was warmly contested.
It generally terminated in favor of the federalists.

The counties of New-York, Westchester, Dutchess,
Columbia, Albany, and Montgomery, gave federal majori-
ties, and generally elected federal members of Assembly,
so that that party was now in the majority in that house,
and in the senate they fully retained their strength ; but
Gov. Clinton was notwithstanding, re-elected by a majo-
rity of four hundred and twenty-nine votes. His election
was saved by the county of Ulster; — the county in which
he commenced his professional and political life. Out of
twelve hundred and forty-five votes polled, Ulster gave
Mr. Clinton ten hundred and thirty-nine. For the grati-
fication of the curious, and to show the astonishing in-
crease of votes in the state since the year of 1789, 1 will
give the result of the canvass of that year in the several
senatorial districts, reminding the reader in the meantime,
that only freeholders voted for governor :

Clinton. Yates,

Southern District, 1885 1875

Middle « 2059 1175

Western « 2004 2761

Eastern « 443 148

6391 5962

From the above statement, it will appear, that although
the election was sharply contested, the whole number of

42 POLITICAL HISTORY

votes given in the (now) empire state, was but twelve
thousand three hundred and fifty-three.

That Governor Clinton succeeded in this election, is a
high evidence of his personal popularity. His friends
aroxind him were slain, but he himself walked off the
field of battle in triumph.

On the 6th day of June, the governor issued his pro-
clamation to convene the legislature at Albany on the 6th
day of July following, They met on that day, and Mr.
Gulian Verplanck, a member from the city of New-York,
was elected speaker of the assembly without opposition.
It will be recollected that in consequence of a disagree-
ment between the two houses about the manner of elect-
ing United States senators, none were chosen by the legis-
lature in 1788. The governor therefore, in his speech at
the opening of the session, stated that the reason he had
called an extra session was, that the legislature at the ear-
liest day, might again have an opportimity of electing se-
nators to represent the state in the senate of the United
States; and he made no other specific recommendations.
The answer of the two houses was respectful, and, in fact,
a mere echo to the speech of the governor.

At this time the principal offices in the state were held
by the following gentlemen:

Pierre Van Courtland, lieutenant-governor,

R. R. Livingston, chancellor.

Richard Morris, chief justice of the supreme court.

Robert Yates, and } ■ .

T u oi Tj u t r associates.
John aloss Hobert, )

Lewis Allain Scott, secretary of state.

Richard Varick, attorney general.

Simeon De Witt, surveyor general.

Mr. Egbert Benson had been attorney general, but upon

being elected a member of congress, he resigned that of-

OF NEW-VORK. 43

fice, and on the 14th May, 1789, Mr. Varick was ap-
pointed his successor.

The council of appointment were composed of Samuel
Townsend, Peter Van Ness, John Hathorn, and John Wil-
liams, all anti-federalists. On the 29th September, the
governor, by the consent of the council, appointed John
Lansing, Jun., mayor of Albany, and Samuel Jones, re-
corder of New-Yorkj Aaron Burr was, on the same day,
appointed attorney general, in place of Mr. Varick, who
had resigned.

In pursuance of the recommendation of the governor,
the two houses immediately proceeded to make provision
by law, for the choice of senators in congress, and on the
21st July, they passed a bill providing that when two se-
nators were to be chosen, and each house nominated dif-
ferent persons, the senate should choose one of the per-
sons nominated by the assembly, and that that house
should elect one of the persons nominated by the se-
nate, and that in case one senator only was to be cho-
sen, and the two houses disagreed in their nominations,
either house might offer to the other a resolution of con-
currence from time to time, naming therein such person
as the house in which the resolution originated, might
think proper, until a senator should be chosen by the
concurrence of both houses. This singular project did
not receive the approbation of the council of revision,
and they returned the bill to the legislature, with the fol-
lowing objections:

1. Because, by the constitution of the United States,
the senators are required to be chosen by the state legis-
lature. The council therefore argued that if in ihe choice
of senators, the two houses do not act in their legislative
capacity, no law is necessary, and the senators may be
chosen by concurrent resolution. If the two houses act
in their legislative capacity, then the senators must be ap-

44 POLITICAL mSTORY

pointed by a law passed in the usual form. [In the latter
case, no senator could have been elected against the wish-
es of the council of revision, unless two-thirds of the
members of both houses concurred.]

2. Because, when two senators are to be chosen by the
mode proposed by the bill, one or both may be chosen
contrary to the wishes of one branch of the legislature.

Two-thirds of both houses not being in favor of the
bill, it was lost, and the legislature on the 19th of July,
by joint resolution^ appointed Gen. Philip Schuyler and
Rufus King senators. Mr. King had then recently remo-
ved from the state of Massachusetts, which state he had
for a considerable time next and immediately before his
removal to this state, represented in the continental con-
gress, and had distinguished himself for talents and use-
fulness in a manner highly creditable in that venerable
and venerated body.

No other important business was transacted during this
session-

At the winter session in 1790, on the 15th of Janu-
ary, Philip Livingston, John Cantine, Philip Schuyler and
Edward Savage were elected members of the council of
appointment. Mr. Livingston from the southern and
Gen. Schuyler from the western districts were federalists,
and Mr. Cantine from the middle, and Mr. Savage (the
father of the late chief justice John Savage) were repub-
licans, a name which the party headed by Gov. Clinton,
began now to assume. I am inclined to think, although
I am not sure of the fact, that all the senators from the
middle and eastern districts were republicans, and that for
this reason the federal majority in the assembly elected
Mr. Cantine and Mr. Savage.

It must not be forgotten, that Gen Schuyler was at that
time a senator in congress, which by the bye, was then in
session, he at the same time holding his seat as a senator

OF NEW-yOKK. 45

of this state, and as a member of the council of appoint-
ment. It is somewhat singular that under such circum-
stances he should have been elected by the assembly as a
member of the council. It is more than probable that as
the relations of the state with the general government,
were just being commenced, the incompatibility of the
the two offices was not thought of at the time the council
was chosen, for in less than two weeks afterwards, Jan-
uary 27th, the assembly resolved 34 to 22 —

1. That it was incompatible with the United States
constitution for any person holding an office under the
United States government, at the same time to have a seat
in the legislature of this state. 2. That when a mem-
ber of the state legislature was elected or appointed to
office under the United States, (he as I presume, accepting
such office) his seat in this body should be and was de-
clared vacant.

These resolutions passed as well the senate as the as-
sembly, and thereupon the senate resolved that the seat
of James Duane, a senator from the southern district, who
had been appointed United States district judge, of Philip
Schuyler from the western district, who was a senator in
congress, of John Hathorn, a senator from the middle, and
John Law^-ence, a senator from the southern district, who
were members of the United States house of represent-
atives, were vacant.

There was obviously a most conclusive reason why
the same persons could not be members of the national
and state legislature at the same time, for in such case
neither legislature could compel the attendance of their
own members without the danger of a collision with the
other. After the passage of these resolutions, Mr. Can-
tine, on the 3d April, raised the question in council, whe-
ther, as General Schuyler was not then a member of the
senate, his seat at that board had not become vacant ?

46 POLITICAL HISTORY

Mr. Livingston offered a resolution to the effect, that af-
ter the assembly have appointed a senator a member of
the council, if his seat should afterwards be vacated by
the senate, this board are incompetent to disqualify and
vacate the seat of such member. The question was of
course novel, and certainly curious, and somewhat difficult
to decide. On the one hand the constitution required that
a member of the council of appointment, should be a se-
nator, and on the other, if an expulsion by the senate
would disqualify a person from acting as a member of the
council of appointment, then the majority of the senate
would possess a control in relation to the persons of whom
the appointing power should be composed, inconsistent
with w hat was intended by the framers of the constitu-
tion.

I find that a case occurred as early as the year 1781,
w^hich brought up this same question, but which I do not
perceive was referred to on the present occasion.

In October, 1780, Ephraim Paine, a senator, was elect-
ed a member of the council of appointment. During the
succeeding winter session, he was expelled from the se
nate. After his expulsion, the assembly elected Arthui
Parks, a senator from the middle district, a member of
the council in lieu of Mr. Paine. On the 29th March,
Mr. Parks took his seat at the council board, but it ap-
pears from the records of the proceedings of that board,
[Book B. p. 221.] that the council unanimously protested
against his right to a seat, and entered their protest on the
minutes. What is somewhat remarkable is, that although
Mr. Parks himself signed the protest, he continued to act
as a member of the council till another was chosen the
next year by the assembly. It does not appear that the
council of 1790, acted on the proposition either of Mr.
Cantine, or Mr. Livingston, but a day or two after these
propositions were made, Mr. Savage moved that the opin-

OF NEW-YORK. 47

ion of the legislature, on the questions before the council,
be requested. That motion was concurred in, and on the
5th April, Governor Clinton sent a message to the assem-
bly, informing them of the proceedings in the council, and
requesting their opinion as to the proper course which the
board ought to take in relation to Gen. Schuyler.

The assembly^ after some discussion, resolved, that if
by any legal disability, the seat of a senator becomes va-
cant, the consequences resulting from such vacancy in re-
lation to his subsequent acts, is a question of law, and
therefore it was improper foT the house to express any
opinion on the questions growing out of the message, un-
less a bill embracing those questions should be presented
to them, in which case it would then become their duty
to act as a branch of the law making power.

Gen. Schuyler persisted in his right to a seat at the ap-
pointing board ; for at a subsequent day an objection was
again made in the council to his appearance there, but
he himself moved that the council proceed in the despatch
of its ordinary business. Whether the question arising
on this motion in form, was decided by the council, does
not appear; but it is certain the general continued to act
as a member of the council until a new one was the next
year chosen.

About this time, Richard Morris, the chief justice, re-
signed his office, and Robert Yates was appointed to suc-
ceed him. By the resignation of chief justice Morris,
and the appointment of Judge Yates in his place, a va-
cancy of an associate judge was created. Egbert Benson
was the federal candidate, and received the votes of gen-
eral Schuyler and Mr. Livingston ; John Lansing, Jun.,
was the republican candidate, and was supported by
Messrs. Cantine and Savage, and appointed by the cast-
ing vote of the governor. About the same time Abra-
ham Yates, Jun., was appointed mayor of Albany, Peter

48 POLITICAL HISTORY

Gansevoort sheriff, and Richard Lush clerk. These ap-
pointments were also made by the casting vote of the go-
vernor, Gen. Schuyler and Mr. Livingston voting for
Gen. Ten Broeck for mayor, and John Tayler for clerk.

It would seem from the fact that the dissenting coun-
cillors caused to be entered on the minutes, the names of
the persons whom they wished appointed, instead of a
mere entry of no, to the governor's nomination, that the
exclusive right of the governor to nominate was ques-
tioned at this early day, but I have not perceived that it
became a matter of discnssion in the newspapers until
several years afterwards.

From the result of the general election in April, 1790,
I cannot perceive evidence of any material change in the
political opinion of the electors. The election, no doubt,
resulted in a nominal federal majority in both houses, but
party lines were not then as distinctly marked as they are
at present, and several of the members of assembly and
senate, who were called federalists, were friendly to Gov.
Clinton, and were unwilling to be governed in their offi-
cial acts by party considerations. The election of Aaron
Burr to the United States senate, in opposition to so dis-
tinguished a federalist as Gen. Schuyler, of which I shall
speak more particularly hereafter, is a decisive proof of
this position.

Ever since the organization of the United States go-
vernment under the new constitution, the funding system
proposed by Gen. Hamilton, and the creation of a nation-
al bank, had been a subject which excited much attention,
and about which the public mind was greatly divided.
The most objectionable part of General Hamilton's scheme
was the assumption by the nation, of the debts of the re-
spective states, and the chartering of a bank. To these
measures the republicans of this state were generally op-
posed. But at the session of congress in New- York, du-

OF NEW-yOKK. 49

ring this summer, a majority was obtained in favor of the
assumption. Both Gen. Schuyler and Mr. King voted
for the measure in the senate; in the house of represent-
atives the vote of New-York was equally divided — 3 to 3.

The New-York legislature met in the city of New-York,
January 3, 1791, and Mr. John Watts was unanimously
elected speaker of the assembly. A census had been ta-
ken in the year 1790, from w^hich it appeared that the
population of the state then amounted to three hundred
and twenty-four thousand one hundred and twenty-seven,
and that the increase was more than eighty-five thousand
since 1786. This increase was mainly in the northern
and western parts of the state. The governor in his
speech therefore called the attention of the legislature to
that subject, and suggested that a new apportionment of
the representation in the legislature was required to be
made, and a new division of the senatorial districts. Scat-
tering settlements having been made westerly along the
valley of the Mohawk river as far as the Oneida lake,
and northerly along the shores of lake Champlain, the
country bordering on those regions had been explored,
and Gov. Clinton at that early period suggested that fa-
cilities ought to be afforded by clearing out the obstruc-
tions in the Mohawk river, and by cutting canals, to open
a communication between lake Champlain and Hudson's
river at the north, and Wood creek at the west. The an-
swer of the two houses was a mere echo to the gover-
nor's speech.

This session seems to have been a very quiet and use-
ful one, with a single exception. It will be seen hereaf-
ter, that this legislature invested the commissioners of the
land office with too great discretionary powers relative to
the disposition and sale of the public lands. The coun-
cil of appointment chosen this year, consisted of Isaac

4

50 POLITICAL HISTORY

Rosevelt, Peter Schuyler, Thomas Tillotson and Alexan-
der Webster.

Gen. Schuyler having, on casting lots, drawn the short-
est term, in the United States senate, his seat became va-
cant on the 4th Ararch, 179]; it therefore became neces-
sary in the early part of this session to elect a senator.
The general was a candidate for re-election, and Mr.
Aaron Burr was his competitor. Col. Burr was nominat-
ed by both houses — in the assembly his majority was five,
in the senate eight. At this time, the senators were cho-
sen by concurrent resolution. In the assembly, after the
vote between Schuyler and Burr had been taken, a mo-
tion was made to strike out ihe name of Burr, with
a view to insert the name of Egbert Benson, but the ef-
fort was unsuccessful. It may appear singular that the ma-
jority in the senate was so large against Gen. Schuyler, as
the majority in that body must have been nominally federal.
But Schuyler, although he was unquestionably a man of
high honor and integrity, possessing enlarged, liberal and
patriotic views as regarded the great interests of the state,
was an ardent and violent partizan, and was presumed to
act under the influence of Gen. Hamilton, who was his
son-in-law, and although he was a man of commanding
appearance, yet his manners having been formed in camps
and not in courts or among the people, were austere and
aristocratic, and rendered him personally unpopular. Burr,
on the contrary, was a man of very pleasing and fascinat-
ing address, and at that period of his life was considered
one of the most persuasive and eloquent speakers of the
age. In politics, he belonged to the medium party. He
must have been considered as opposed to the ultras of
both parties, and could not at any rate have been viewed
as identified with the republican party, for we have seen
him in 1789, acting as a member of a corresponding com-
mittee to promote the election of Judge Yates, against Mr.

OF NEW- YORK. 51

Clinton. He was evidently opposed, both to Clinton and
Hamilton. Indeed in his correspondence with Hamilton,
which terminated in a duel fatal to the latter, several years
afterwards, he avows with a frankness unusual to him,
he always considered Clinton and Hamilton as his rivals.
(2 Burr.) In fact the whole tenor of this gentleman's
politicallife,impressesonmymind a conviction that per-
sonal motives rather than his opinions as to measures, had
a controlling influence over his political conduct. From
all these considerations, I infer that several of the fede-
ralists in the senate preferred him to Gen. Schuyler.
Hence we find that although the senate at that time con-
sisted of twenty-four members, only sixteen votes were giv-
en at the election between Burr and Schuyler, and twelve
of these votes were given to Burr. Had the assembly
nominated Judge Benson, is it not probable that the re-
sult in the senate would have been different 1

After Mr. Burr was elected senator, his office of attor-
ney-general was, by the council, declared vacant, and
Morgan Lewns was appointed his successor, November
8, 1791. Mr. Lewis was connected with the Livingston
family — a family which had great influence in the legisla-
ture. Might not this arrangement have been anticipated
before the senatorial election, and have had some influ-
ence on its result 1 It is proper, however, to add that
Philip Livingston, a federal senator from the southern
district, remained at his post, and voted for Gen. Schuy-
ler.

The legislature proceeded to apportion the representa-
tion according to the last census, and to make a new divi-
sion of the senate districts. It appeared there were, at
that time, nineteen thousand six hundred and twenty-
six electors for senators in the state. This would give
one senator to eight hundred and seventeen electors; and
on this basis the ratio of representation was fixed. The

52 POLITICAL HISTORY.

new act provided that the southern disti'Ict should be com-
posed of the counties of Suffolk, Queens, Kings, Rich-
mond, New-York, and Westchester, and should be enti-
tled to elect eight senators ; that the middle district should
contain the counties of Dutchess, Ulster and Orange, and
elect six senators; that the eastern district should be form-
ed by the counties of Columbia, Rensselaer, (which had
been recently created) Washington and Clinton, with the
right to elect five senators, and that the western district
should be comprised of the counties of Albany, Montgo-
mery, Saratoga and Ontario, (the two latter counties had
then been lately created) and should be represented by
five senators. This act was passed February 7, 1791.
That the subsequent narration may be better understood,
I will here insert the names of the members of the senate
in 1791.

From the southern district, Isaac Rosevelt, Philip Liv-
ingston, Samuel Micheau, Ezra L'Hommedieu, Samuel
Jones, Durand Gelston, Philip Van Cortland, and Joshua
Sands.

Middle, James Clinton, (brother of the governor,) Ja-
cobus Swartwout, John Cantine, James Carpenter, Tho-
mas Tillotson, and David Pye.

Western, Philip Schuyler, Stephen Van Rensselaer,
Volkert P. Douw, Peter Schuyler, and Leonard Ganse-
voort.

Eastern, Peter Van Ness, John Williams, Edward Sa-
vage, Alexander Webster, and William Powers.

Subsequent to the passing of the act for a new divi-
sion of the state into senatorial districts, the legislature
erected out of the county of Montgomery three new
counties, to wit, Herkimer, Otsego and Tioga. The act
creating these counties was passed on the 17th day of
February. The assembly was to consist of seventy-three
members, and to be elected from the several counties in

OF NEW-YORK. 53

the proportions following : New-York 7, Suffolk 4,
Queens 3, Kings 1, Richmond 1, Dutchess 7, Westches-
ter 5, Oran-ge5, Columbia 6, Rensselaer 5, Washington 4,
Albany 7, Saratoga 4, Montgomery 5, Ontario 1, and
three counties, Herkimer, Otsego and Tioga, each one.

James Kent was this year a member of the assembly
from the county of Dutchess. This was the first appear-
ance in public life of that able writer and eminent and
learned jurist.

In addition to the ordinary appointments, it became ne-
cessary for the governor and council to appoint officers
for all the new counties which had recently been created
by the legislature. An entire civil list was to be formed,
and in doing this it would appear from examining the
catalogue of appointments, that the governor made his se-
lections with the view to the personal merits and fitness
of the candidates, irrespective of the political party to
which they happened to belong; a circumstance credita-
ble to him, and honorable to the principle of action which
seems to have governed the conduct of the political par-
ties of that day. Thus, William Cooper was appointed
first judge of Otsego county, Richard R. Smith sheriff,
and Jacob Morris clerk; all of them open, zealous and
decided political opponents of the governor. In other
counties, the appointments appear to have been equally li-
beral, and to have been made without reference to the
course the persons appointed might pursue at the great
election which was to be held the next year. I observe
that Jonas Piatt, afterwards a justice of the supreme court
and a distinguished politician, who had then lately estab-
lished himself at Whitesborough, at that time in the bo-
som of the wild, uncultivated western forests, was this
year appointed clerk of the county of Herkimer, which
then included the county of Oneida and the territory which
now composes the great northern counties of Oswego, Jef-

54 POLITICAL HISTORY

ferson, &.c. The result of the general election in April,

1791, would seem to indicate an increase of strength to
the republican party, but so many local and personal con-
siderations operated on the minds of the electors, that it
is difficult at this time to form a judgment of the exact
state of public sentiment, by the result of an election in
any particular county. Thus Melancton Smith, one of
the most zealous, able and deserving friends of Gov. Clin-
ton was chosen one of the members from the city of New-
York, although at that very time, the city was strongly
federal, and elected Josiah Ogden Hoffman, and other
ardent and efficient federalists as his colleagues.

The legislature met at New-York, on the 5th January,

1792, and again Mr. Watts was elected speaker of the
assembly.

Among other matters communicated by the governor in
his speech, at the opening of the session, to the legisla-
ture, he informed them that large and extensive sales had
been made of the public lands, or as he termed them, " the
waste and unappropriated lands," and he advised that the
proceeds should be applied to the discharge of the state
debts, and the surplus invested in such manner that the
income arising therefrom should be applied annually to
defray the ordinary expenses of the state.

The assembly this year chose David Pye, Pilip Van
Cortland, Stephen Van Rensselaer, and William Powers
members of the council of appointment.

The term of Gov. Clinton's office expired this year,
and both political parties early displayed a most intense
anxiety in relation to the result of the next general elec-
tion. The federalists were for some time in doubt about
the selection of their candidate, and had great difficulty in
fixing upon one that was agreeable to them, who would
consent to run. Judge Yates positively declined another
contest. Mr. Van Rensselaer, the patroon, Avas applied

OF NEW-YORK. 65

to, but refused to be a candidate. Chancellor Livingston,
it seems, was also spoken of, and Chief Justice Jay was
much desired, but it was very doubtful considering the
exalted station he held under the general government, and
his known aversion to personal collision and party war-
fare whether, under any circumstances, he would permit
his name to be used. Mr. Burr was spoken of by those
who called themselves the moderate men of both parties.
Indeed there would seem to have been a disposition among
a portion of the republican party to make him the
regular republican candidate. In an anon3'mous letter,
dated at New-York, February 13, and published in the
Albany Gazette, probably written by some federal mem-
ber of the legislature, it is stated that " Judge Yates re-
fuses to be a candidate for governor; that Col. Burr has
come forward, and now openly declares himself a candi-
date. Judge Yates' friends, southern and northern, are'
against Col. Burr, and we are uncertain who our candi-
dates will be. Stephen Van Rensselaer and John Jay
are spoken of. S. Van Rensselaer has been waited on, but
has declined. He will be again called on. The chan-
cellor and Jay have also been spoken to, but they have
declined." But it seems that Mr. Jay, probably by the
persuasion of General Hamilton, Schuyler and other friends
was induced to change his determination; for on the eve-
ning of the 13th of February, a meeting was held in New-
York, at which Peter Van Ness, a senator from the east-
ern district, presided, and at which John Jay was nominat-
ed for governor, and Stephen Van Rensselaer for lieuten-
ant governor. Judge Yates attended this meeting, and
repeated his determination not to be a candidate, but ex-
pressed a firm resolution to support the federal nominee,
and stated that he had not declined with a view, as some
had asserted, to favor Col. Burr's success.

56 POLITICAL HISTORY

At a more general meeting, held a few days afterwards
of which Gen. Ten Broeck was chairman, and Gen. North
secretary, the nomination of Mr. Jay and Mr. Van
Rensselaer was reiterated and confirmed, and the most
efficient means were put in requisition to insure their elec-
tion. This was a strong ticket, probably the strongest
which could have been formed by the federal party in
the state.

On the 15th February, a republican meeting was held
in New-York, composed as was alledged, of gentlemen
from various parts of the state, of which Jonathan Law-
rence was chairman, at which George Clinton and Pierre
Van Cortland were nominated for a re-election. Even
after this public annunciation of the will of the republi-
can party, it would seem that the support of Col. Burr
was still urged by his friends, for I find in the Albany
tjrazette of the 27th of February, an able and well writ-
ten communication over the signature of a Plain Farmer ^
in which Col. Burr is recommended for governor to the
moderate men of both parties, on account of his superior
talents, and because " he did not belong to either -party P
If however, an attempt was really made by Col. Burr and
his friends to get up a third party, of which he was to be
the head, it was entirely unsuccessful, for public meetings
were forthwith held in almost every county in the state
both of the federal and republican parties, at which
the nominations of Mr. Clinton and Mr. Jay were
unanimously and with apparent cordiality concurred m
by the parties to which they respectively belonged. Af-
ter all these demonstrations of the feelings and wishes of
the two parties, on the 15th of March, Col. Burr caused
it to be announced in the newspapers that he was not a
candidate.

While these movements were being made among the
people, a violent attack was made on governor Clinton in

OF NEW-YORK. 57

the legislature on account of the agency he had had in
the sale of the public lands, being the same sale to which
he alluded in his speech at the opening of the session.

When this state became independent of Great Britain,
it held more than seven millions of acres of wild unculti-
vated and unappropriated lands. Sundry laws had been
passed during and subsequent to the revolutionary war,
providing for the sale and settlement of those lands.
But before the year 1790, few sales, considering the quan-
tity of land in market, had been effected. The state be-
ing in want of funds, and all well wishers of its growth
and prosperity being desirous of encouraging adventurers
to make lodgments in the vast wnlds of the west, the
legislature at their session in 1791, in order to quicken the
sales and hasten settlements, passed a law authorizing the
commissioners of the land office to dispose of any of the
waste and unappropriated lands in this state, in such par-
cels and on suck terms and in such manner as they should
judge most condusive to the interest of the public. The
reader will, at one glance, perceive the immensity of the
power conferred on the commissioners. In the language
of a report not long since made by commissioners to the
legislature on another subject, it was " too great a power
to be entrusted to mortal hands." And yet it seems to
have been done by the consent of both political parties.
The commissioners of the land office consisted of the
governor, secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer,
and auditor. Mr. J. A. Scott was secretary of state,
Aaron Burr attorney general, Girard Bancker treasurer,
and Peter T. Curtenius was auditor. Under the authori-
ty of the act to which I have referred, these gentlemen
sold, during the year 1791, five millions five hundred and
forty-two thousand one hundred and seventy- three acres
of land, for the sura of one million thirty thousand, four
hundred and thirty-three dollars. Among the sales was

58 POLITICAL HISTORY

one to Alexander McComb, of the enormous quantity of
three million six hundred and thirty-five thbusand two
hundred acres. The price to him was eight pence per
acre, payable in five annual instalments, without inte-
rest, subject to a discount of six per cent, on payment in
advance, which reduced still lower the actual price. (1
Davis' Memoirs of Burr, 326.) Large parcels of land
were also sold to other individuals, among whom were
the Messrs. Rosevelts, James Caldwell, McGregor, &c.,
but these sales were made at a hig-her rate. Some a little
exceeded three shillings per acre, some for two shillings
and six pence, and some for one shilling.

When the report was under consideration in the assem-
bly, Col. Talbot, a member from Montgomery county,
offered a series of resolutions severely condemnatory of
the conduct of the commissioners.

It was alledged that the lands were sold in too large
tracts; that they should have been sold in parcels not ex-
ceeding twenty-five thousand acres each; that if they had
been sold in that way, the avails of the sales would
have been much greater; and that it was detrimental to
the advance of the state in aggregate wealth, and incon-
sistent with our republican institutions to encourage a
monopoly of land in the hands of a few individuals.
Again, it was urged as a suspicious circumstance, that
lands were sold to McComb for eight pence per acre,
whereas five hundred thousand acres were sold by the
same commissioners and about the same time, to John and
Nicholas Rosevelt for three shillings and a penny per acre.
In the heat of debate upon Mr. Talbot's resolutions, it
■was broadly insinuated that Gov. Clinton and his imme-
diate friends were personally, but secretly interested in
these sales.* The answer was a total denial of all cor-

• As the election for governor was to take place in April following, it is very
probable that this charge was made partly with a view to prevent the re-electioa

or NEW-YORK. 59

rupt motives on the part of the commissionersj and in
fact, it does not appear that any such were attempted to
be proved; and an allegation that the intention of the
legislature was, that the lands should be sold at any rate.
It w^as further alledged, and boldly asserted, that no high-
er offers could be obtained, than those which were finally
accepted by the commissioners. It might have been, and
probably was urged, that the purchasers of these lands
would become active and powerful agents to procure emi-
grants from other states and from abroad, to settle those
wild and uncultivated forests, and thus a rapid increase
would be made to the population, wealth, and resources
of the state; and events have proved that such has been
the consequence; but still I cannot help thinking, that
the commissioners acted not only injudiciously, but pal-
pably wrong, in selling such large tracts at one time to
individuals. The wants of the state were surely not so
pressing but that if the commissioners had confined their
sales to from one hundred to ten thousand acres to each
purchaser, enough funds might have been raised to have
met all the public exigencies. Land agents on the part of
the state, might have been created, whose sole business
should have been to make sales of lands to actual settlers;
and whose gains should have been in proportion to the
quantity of land they should have sold. In some such
way it appears to me the wants of the state might have
been supplied, the settlement and cultivation of the wild
lands rapidly made, and a fund preserved for the benefit
of the state, of incalculable amount. Mr. Davis, in his
Memoirs of the Life of Col. Burr, says, (1 vol. p. 329)

of Mr. Clinton ; and there can be little doubt that it did have a considerable effect
unfavorable to him.

The lands purchased by McComb, were those in which it was alledged the
governor was interested. But in May, 1792, after the election, Mr. McCoinb made
oath before Richard Varick, then mayor of New-York, (a federalist,) that Gov.
Clinton was neither directly nor indirectly interested in the lands purchased by
him. I have seen and read McComb's affidavit.

60 POLITICAL HISTORY

"these resolutions (Col. Talbot's,) exempted Col. Burr
from any participation in the malconduct complained of,
inasmuch as the minutes of the board proved that he was
not present at the meetings {being absent o?i official duty
as Attorney General,) when these contracts, so ruinous as
they alledged, to the interest of the state, were made."
The resolutions do not exempt Col. Burr, but it is true
that they refer only to " such of the commissioners as had
an agency in the sales." But if Col. Burr did not choose
to appear personally at the board, can it 'be possible that
these enormous sales and speculations were negotiating
probably for months and months in the city where Col. Burr
resided, and principally effected with business men, with
some of whom he no doubt was in the habit of daily inter-
course, by a board of which he constituted one member of
the five of which it was composed, without knowing any
thins: of the matter *? Is this consistent with the idea we
form of the vigilant, scrutinizing Col. Burr, who his friends
in those days alledged, if he did not know every thing in
" Heaven and earth," at least knew every thing material
that was passing in the city of New-York 1 But Mr. Da-
vis says, " he was absent on official business." This Mr.
D. does not affirm from his own knowledge; and as he
does not, it is fair to inquire where Col. Burr was, and
what was that official business which kept him for montlis
out of the city of New-York 1 In page 288, Mr. Davis
assigns as a reason why Mr. Burr accepted the office of
Attorney General, " that the seat of government was in
New-York, and Mr. Burr's official business seldom requi-
red his absence from home." On the whole, I think it
preposterous to suppose that Col. Burr was not consulted,
or that he did not in fact consent to these sales. If he
did not appear personally at the board at the time when
any question was formally decided, it was in accordance

OF NEW- YORK. 61

with that extreme caution and wariness which always
governed his public conduct.

After a very long and acrimonious discussion of Col.
Talbot's resolutions, they were finally rejected, and on the
10th of April, Mr. Melancton Smith, as pure a man as
ever lived, introduced a resolution approving of the con-
duct of the commissioners, which was adopted in the as-
sembly by a vote of thirty-five to twenty.

62 POLITICAL HISTORY

CHAPTER III.

FROM THE GENERAL STATE ELECTION IN 1792, TO MAY 1, 1798.

The election of governor in April, 1792, was conduct-
ed with much zeal, and called out, in every county in the
state, the most rancorous criminations and recriminations.
Testate canvassers who met on the second Tuesday in
Ju", 1792, declared George Clinton duly elected go-
vernor by a majority of one hundred and eight votes.
But the close of the election in this instance, proved to
be the beginning of e^-ils, growing out of party collisions.

By the laws of this state, from the organization o'f its
government down to and subsequent to the period of
"which I am now writing, the votes for governor, lieuten-
ant governor, and senators, were canvassed by a joint
committee of the two houses of the legislature. This
committee consisted of twelve persons, six of whom were
chosen by each house. The ballots taken in each town,
were by law required to be delivered to the sheriffs of the
respective counties, whose duty it was to put them into a
box and transmit them to the secretary of state, who was
required to deliver the boxes containing the ballots to the
canvassing committee, who were to count them, and de-
clare what candidates were elected. The decision of the
canvassers was declared by the statute to be final and con-
clusive. By the constitution, article 12, in connexion
with article 9, the senate are constituted judges of their
own members. The colonial assemblies had always ex-
ercised the right of judging whether their members were
duly elected, a right which seems to me inherent in all
representative bodies. It, therefore, seems to follow, that
when the legislature enacted a law that the decision of the

OF NEW-YORK. 63

canvassers was conclusive as respected the election of sena
tojs, they exceeded their powers; but as the constitution
had not designated the persons who were to decide on the
evidence of the election of a governor, the legislature had
of course the right, and it was their duty to provide by
law for their appointment. These remarks will be found
to have a bearing on the controversy, the history of which
I am about to relate.

The acting canvassers this year, were David Gelston,
Thomas Tillotson, Melancton Smith, Daniel Graham, P.
Van Cortland Jr., David McCarty, Jonathan N. Havens,
Samuel Jones, Isaac Rosevelt, Leonard Ganesvoort, and
Joshua Sands. These gentlemen differed in opinion as to
the right of canvassing and allowing the votes given in
the counties of Otsego, Clinton, and Tioga, the seven first
named being for rejecting, and Messrs. Jones, Rosevelt,
Ganesvoort, and Sands, being for allowing them. The
question was vitally important, because it was generally
admitted that the county of Otsego had given about four
hundred majority for Mr. Jay, and that Clinton and
Tioga would not materially diminish that majority. If,
therefore, the votes from these counties were counted and
allowed, Mr. Jay was elected; if rejected, Mr. Clinton
was the successful candidate.

After considerable discussion, the canvassers agreed to
request the opinion of Rufus King and Aaron Burr, the
two state senators, and both of them eminent lawyers.
The facts in the case are so clearly and distinctly stated
by the committee in their communication to Messrs. King
and Burr, that I cannot better present them to the reader
than by transcribing that statement.

The canvassers commence by stating the facts in relation
to the Otsego votes. They say that " by the twenty-sixth
section of the constitution of the state of New- York, it is
ordained that sheriffs and coroners be annually appointed,

64 POLITICAL HISTORY

and that no person shall be capable of holding either of
the said offices for more than four years successivelyj nor
the sheriff of holding any other office at the same time.
By the ninth section of the act for regulating elections, it
is enacted that one of the inspectors shall deliver the bal-
lots and poll-lists, sealed up, to the sheriff of the county;
and, by the tenth section of the said act, it is further enact-
ed, that each and every sheriff of the respective counties
in this state, shall, upon receiving the said enclosures,
directed to be delivered to him as aforesaid, without open-
ing or inspecting the same, or any or either of them, put
the said enclosures, and every one of them, into one box,
which shall be well closed and sealed by him, under his
hand and seal, with the name of his county written on the
box, and be delivered by him into the office of the secre-
tary of this state, where the same shall be safely kept by
the secretary or his deputy. By the eleventh section of
the said act, all questions arising on the canvass and esti-
mate of the votes, or on any of the proceedings therein,
shall be determined by a majority of the members of the
joint committee attending; and their judgment shall be
final, and the oath of the canvassers requires them faith-
fully, honestly, and impartially to canvass and estimate
the votes contained in the boxes delivered into the office
of the secretary of this state by the sheriffs of the several
counties.

"On the 17th of February, 1791, Richard R. Smith
was appointed sheriff of the county of Otsego, and his
commission gives him the custody of that county until the
18th of February, 1792. On the 13th of January, 1792,
he writes a letter to the council of appointment, inform-
ing them that, as the year for which he was appointed
liad nearly elapsed, he should decline a re-appointment.

" On the 30th of March, 1792, the council of appoint-
ment appointed Benjamin Gilbert to the office of sheriff of

OF KEW-YORK. 65

the said county, with a commission, in the usual form, to
keep the county until the 17th of February next. His
commission was delivered to Stephen Van Rensselaer, Esq.
on the 13th of April last, to be forwarded by him to the
said Benjamin Gilbert. By the affidavit of the said Ben-
jafiain Gilbert, herewith delivered, it appears that he quali-
fied into the office of sheriff on the 11th day of May,
1792. On the first Tuesday in April, 1792, Richard R.
Smith was elected supervisor of the town of Otsego, in
said county, and on the first Tuesday in May, took his
seat at the board of supervisors, and assisted in the ap-
pointment of loan officers for the county of Otsego. By
the affidavit of Richard R. Smith, herewith delivered, it
appears that the ballots taken in the county of Otsego
were delivered to him as sheriff, and by him enclosed in a
sufficient box, on or about the 3d of May, which box he
then delivered into the hands of Leonard Goes, a person
specially deputed by him for the purpose of delivering the
said box into the hands of the secretary of this state, which
was accordingly done, as appears by information from the
secretary.

" A small bundle of papers^ enclosed and sealed, was
delivered to the secretary with the box, on which is writ-
ten, ' The votes of the town of Cherry Valley, in the
county of Otsego. Richard R. Smith, sheriff.' Several
affidavits, herewith delivered, state certain facts respect-
ing this separate bundle, said to be the votes of Cherry
Valley.

" On this case arise the following questions:
" 1. Was Richard R. Smith the sheriff of the county
of Otsego when he received and forwarded the ballots by
his special deputy*?

" 2. If he was not sheriff, can the votes sent by him be
legally canvassedl

5

66 POLITICAL HISTORY

" 3. Can the joint committee canvass the votes when
sent to them in two parcels, the one contained in a box,
and the other contained in a paper, or separate bundle?

" 4. Ought they to canvass those sealed in the box, and
reject the others'?

" Tioga. — It appears that the sheriff of Tioga delivered
the box containing the ballots to B. Hovey, his special
deputy, who set out, was taken sick on his journey, and
delivered the box to H. Thompson, his clerk, who de-
livered it into the secretary's office.

" Question. Ought the votes of Tioga to be canvass-
ed ?

" Clinton. — It appears that the sheriff of Clinton de-
livered the box containing the ballots to Theodorus Piatt,
Esq., w-ho had no deputation, but who delivered them into
the secretary's office, as appears by his affidavit.

" Question. Ought the votes of Clinton to be canvass-
ed 1"

Upon this statement of the case, Mr. King's opinion
was that inasmuch as the term of four years had not ex-
pired from the time of Smith's appointment, and his suc-
cessor had not taken possession of the office, he was
legally sheriff of the county of Otsego at the time the votes
were forwarded.

2. If he was not legally sheriff, he was sheriff in fact,
and thous-h such acts of an officer de facto as are volun-
tarily and exclusively beneficial to himself are void, yet
such acts as tend to the public utility are valid.

3. The votes from Cherry Valley, which were put into
the box ought to be canvassed but not those attached to
the outside of it.

4. The votes from Clinton ought to be canvassed, be-
cause a sheriff may deputize by parol.

OF NEW-YORK. 67

6, The votes of Tioga ought to be canvassed, although
it is doubtful whether a deputy of a sheriff can make a
deputy, yet the election law ought to be construed libe-
rally, and in furtherance of the right of sutFrage.

Col. Burr's opinion was,

1. That the Otsego votes ought to be rejected. Be-
cause, the right of a sheriff to hold over, was in England,
created by statute, which was evidence that at com-
mon law the right did not exist. In New-York, there is
no statute authorizing the sheriff to exercise the functions
of his office after his term expires ; therefore the com-
mon law is the law of the state, and by it the sheriflf,
when his term expires, ceases officially to exist.

2. The facts show that Smith was not sheriff de facto.

With respect to the ballots of Clinton county, Mr.
Burr said that verbal and written deputations by a sheriff
to perform a single ministerial act, are of equal validity.
I therefore infer that he was of opinion that the votes
from this county ought to be allowed.

As to the Tioga votes, Mr. B. declared it as his opi
nion, that a deputy sheriff could not authorize a special
deputy to perforn so important a trust as that of taking
charge of the ballots of a county, and he therefore
thought that the votes from Tioga could not be adjudged
to have been delivered by the sheriff to the secretary.
The opinions of Mr. King and Mr. Burr, are given in
extenso by Mr. Davis, in the first volume of his Memoirs
of Col. Burr, page 336, to which the reader is referred.

A majority of the canvassers, namely, Messrs. Gellston
Tillotson, Smith, Graham, Van Cortland, M'Carty and Ha-
vens finally decided on rejecting the votes from the three
counties. Against this decision Messrs. Jones, Rosevelt
and Gansevoort protested jointly, and Mr. Sands separate-
ly, and caused their protest to be entered on the minutes
of the proceedings of the committee.

68

POLITICAL HISTORY

To my mindj the reasons assigned by Mr. King and by
the minority of the committee in their protest, are strong
and convincing. I think Richard R. Smith, if not de
jure was de facto sheriff, and that his acts as such in this
case were valid. It would be preposterous to assume that
the law of this state, as it then existed, could have been
fairly construed, that whenever from insanity, sudden
death, or any other cause, the new sheriff, after he receiv-
ed his commission, did not qualify himself to discharge
the duties of his office, by the very day the term of office
of the old sheriff expired, that in such case the county
was without a sheriff. That, no such construction had
been recognized, is proved by the fact that the settled usage
and practice had long been that the old sheriff held until
the new one actually took possession of the office. I
also think that the verbal deputation by the sheriff of
Clinton to Mr. Piatt was competent, and that the deputy
sheriff of Tioga had a right to depute a person to carry
the votes of that county to the secretary of state, and in
this position I am sustained by the opinion of the New-
York supreme court.* But I have another reason for be-
lieving that the canvassers ought not to have rejected
these votes. The right of suffrage is a sacred and inva-
luable right which belongs to the elector, and of which
he cannot be divested. When he has deposited his vote
in the ballot box, he has exercised that right. And he
ought not and cannot be deprived of the effect of it, either
by the non-feasance or misfeasance of the agent to whom
the law commits the custody and care of his ballot. If
it be in existence at the time of the canvass, whatever
may have been the negligence or misconduct of the agent

* In the ease of Hunt vs. Burrill, 5 John. R. 137, the court expressly decide that
a deputy sheriff may depute another to do a particular act, and the same doctrine
■was held in England so early as the time of Lord Holt. 1 Salkeld 98, Faiker
S.3 Kett.

OF NEW-YORK. (39

who was charged with the keeping of it, the persons w^ho
adjudicate upon the election of the candidate are bound
to allow it. If it be lost or destroyed, and that vote
would have changed the result, in such case a new elec-
tion oua:ht to be directed. The United States house of
representatives have long since established the rule that
the intention of the voter, when it can be ascertained,
shall be fully carried into effect. It was in accordance
with this principle, that they decided the case of Isaac
Williams, Jr., and John M. Bowers in the year 1813.

But what could Mr. Clinton do 1 He was declared
governor by the only tribunal which had a right to speak
on the subject. If he declined acting, the state for the
time being would be without an executive department,
elected by the freeholders ; for Mr. Van Cortland was in
the same position with him as respected the result of the
election. It seems to me he was right in acting upon the
assumption, that the decision of the canvassers was correct.
Still I cannot think he ought to be exonerated from all
blame. He must have been apprised of the state of the
case, before the canvassers decided — as time was taken by
them to consult counsel and obtain their written opinions.
Ought not Gov. Clinton to have volunteered his advice to
them ■] And if he had advised them to allow the disputed
votes, is it probable that a majority of the committee being
his personal and political friends, would have rejected
them 1 The excitement produced by a heated and sharply
contested election, in the result of which he was personal-
ly concerned, must have biassed and clouded the otherwise
clear and pure mind of the governor. But how easy is it
for us to persuade ourselves that what we ardently wish
should be done, it is right that it should be done 1 How
hard is it for the most pure minded man to adjudicate
upon a question against his own wishes and interest "?
.Besides this, the governor would have had to contend, and

70 POLITICAL HISTORY

did have to contend, not only against his own interest and
wishes, but against the persuasions and wishes of all
those political friends who had steadily and zealously sup-
ported him, and whose political prospects greatly depend-
ed on the decision of the canvassers. Considering there-
fore, the strength of party excitement, and the weakness
of human nature, it is not surprising that Mr. Clinton
should have desired that the canvassing committee should
decide the election in his favor.

The senators elected this year from the southern dis-
trict, were Henry Cruger, Joshua Sands, and Selah Strong,
all federalists; from the middle, Joseph Hasbrouck, re-
publicanj from the western, John Frey, in lieu of Peter
Schuyler deceased, federal; and from the eastern, Robert
Woodworth and John Livingston, republican.

Upon the annunciation of the decision of the canvassers,
great excitement was manifested on the part of the fede-
ralists in every county in the state. Public meetings
were held, and the governor was denounced as an usurper,
and the canvassing committee as corrupt. Some of the
public meetings protested against the legality of the acts
of Mr. Clinton as governor; and the state seemed mena-
ced with the ascendancy of anarchy and utter confusion.
In this state of the public mind, it is consoling as well as
gratifying to refer to the conduct of John Jay. When
the canvassers decided, he was holding a circuit court at
Bennington in Vermont. On his return, upon entering
the borders of this state, his political friends ran together
in crowds to meet him. At Lansingburgh, Albany and
Hudson, he was publicly addressed; and when he arrived
within eight miles of New-York, he was met by a body
of citizens who escorted him to his house in the city.
Some of their addresses to him on this occasion, were
highly inflammatory and very severe upon the conduct,
character and motives of the friends of Gov. Clinton. At

OF NEW-YORK. 71

New-York J immediately after his arrival, a public meet-
ing of " the friends of liberty" was held, " and a commil
tee was appointed to congratulate him on his return, and
to express to him the sentiments of the inhabitants on the
late attempt which had been made ' in contempt of the
sacred voice of the people, in defiance of the constitution,
and in violation of the uniform practice and settled prin-
ciples of law, to deprive him of the high office to which
he had been elected." (1 Jay, 291.) Amidst these ex-
citing scenes, Mr. Jay's deportment was calm and digni-
fied; no bitter or heated expressions escaped him, and his
replies to public addresses were modest, mild and concili-
atory, tending to quiet the heated feelings of his friends,
and to produce not only a respect and obedience to the
laws, but harmony and good feeling in society. I cannot
on this occasion, forbear transcribing a sentence from his
answer to the address of his New-York friends, not only
because it does great honor to this pure and upright man,
but because it is a sentiment which ought to be cherished
. by every friend to social happiness and the stability of our
civil institutions. " Every consideration," says Chief
Justice Jay, " of propriety, forbids that difference in opi-
nion respecting candidates, should suspend or interrupt that
natural good humor which harmonizes society and softens
the asperities incident to human life and human affairs."
Governor Clinton took the oath of office on the first day
of July; and on the 19th of that month, partook of a pub-
lic dinner tendered to him by his political friends in New-
York. The venerable Samuel Osgood, then late post-
master general, as chairman of a committee of the citizens,
delivered an address to the governor alluding to, and ani-
madverting with some severity on, the conduct of his op-
ponents; to which he replied in a conciliatory but dignified
manner. Some of the regular toasts drank at this dinner,
may aff'ord an index to the political views of the republi-

72 POLITICAI, HISTORY

can party in New-York, at that time. The company
toasted,

" The Constitution of the United States."

" General Washington."

" Thomas Jefferson."

" The French Republic."

No national officer or member of the United States
government was named at this meeting, but Gen. Wash-
ington and Mr. Jefferson.

It may be proper here to remark, that when the French
revolution first commenced, and indeed after it had pro-
gressed for a considerable time, there was in America but
one feeling and one view in relation to it. All rejoiced
that any people, and especially a people to whose aid the
United States, in their struggle for independence, were
deeply indebted, had thrown off the shackles of tyranny
and resolved to be free; but at the period of which I am
now writing, many of the American politicians began to
disapprove of the outrages committed by the Jacobins of
France, and to be seriously apprehensive that, considering
the good feeling so universally entertained in America
towards the French nation, that the intrigues of the latter,
and the honest sympathy of the former, might involve the
American republic in an European war. These appre-
hensions carried many intelligent men so far that they
bee:an to denounce the orio^inal revolution in France. Is
there not reason to suspect that some of the latter class of
politicians were in part influenced by their mercantile and
other friends in Great Britain "? The republican party, on
the other hand, advocated with great warmth, the French
revolution, and hailed its authors as friends and brothers.
It is the tendency of political parties to magnify their
differences on all theoretical questions, and apparently to
diverge wider and wider from each other. The federalists
accused the republicans of an undue attachment to Francej

OF NEW-YORK. 73

and affected to hold them responsible for all the wild the
ories both in politics and religion, which at times appeared
and disappeared in France. While the republicans charged
the federalists with being hostile to the French revolution,
unreasonably favorable to the British nation, and in fact,
unfriendly not only to liberty and freedom in France, but
in this country. At the time the dinner was given to the
governor, these feelings were just beginning to take root
in the minds of the leaders of the two parties. I regret
to be compelled to add, that they sprung Up and continued
to grow until they eventually furnished a distinguishing
characteristic of the respective parties.

It is much to be lamented that political parties should
ever be based on a difference of opinion about the merits
or demerits of a foreign nation. Political controversies
of this description tend to degrade us in the eyes of
foreigners, to create the most bitter animosities at home,
and to extinguish that patriotic ardor so essential to the
independence, and I may add, the existence of a free
people.

I have before stated the reasons wdiy the appointment
of a fourth judge of the supreme court was deemed ne-
cessary, and to those reasons may now be added the late
creation by the legislature of several new counties. The
council in view of all the circumstances, determined to
appoint a fourth judge, and by the casting vote of the
governor, that office was in the first instance offered to
Aaron Burr. He hesitated about accepting the appoint-
ment, but inasmuch as the acceptance of that office would
render it necessary for him to resign his seat in the senate
of the United States, he finally concluded to decline
receiving the ofl5ce of judge. After Col. Burr had de-
clined, Morgan Lewis, the attorney general, was appoint-
ed and Nathaniel Lawrence was created attorney general
in the place of Mr. Lewis. These appointments were

74 POLITICAL HISTORY

all made by the votes of Messrs. Pye and Van Cortland,
and the casting vote of the governor.

On the sixth of November, the legislature met in New-
York, and ^Tr. Watts was again without opposition, elected
speaker. The governor's speech was very concise. He
stated that the reason why the session had been appointed so
early, was, in order that a choice of electors for president
and \-ice-president of the United States, might be made in
due time; and he urged their immediate attention to that
subject, and suggested the propriety of an early despatch
of other public business, so as to render the session as
short as possible. It may be that this suggestion was
made in anticipation of the tedious investigation and in-
terminable acrimonious disputes in which, notwithstand-
ing that suggestion, the two houses soon afterwards be-
came engaged, in relation to the conduct of the canvassing
committee. In the senate, the canvassing question was
immediately raised, by an objection made by the federal
ists in that body, to the right of John Livingston, whom
the canvassers had declared duly elected a senator from
the eastern district. That district included the county of
Clinton. Thomas Jenkins was the opposing candidate to
Mr. Livingston; and if all the votes in Clinton county had
been given for Mr. Thos. Jenkins, he would have been
elected. As there was a legal possibilit)' that all the
votes were so given, it was urged that if those votes were
improperly rejected, Mr. Livingston was not entitled to
his seat, and that a new election ought to be directed.
The federalists, therefore, contended that it was the duty
of the senate to review the decision of the canvassers. On
the other hand, it was urged that the decision of the can-
vassers was final and conclusive, even on the senate.

This question was decided in favor of the right of Mr.
Livingston to his seat, by the following vote : — In the
affirmative, AVilliams, Swartwout, Van Cortland, Gels-

OF NEW-YORK. 75

ton, Sclienck, Wootlworth, Hasbrouck, Webster, Pyc,
Tillotson, Cantine, Carpenter. Negative, Frey, Schuy-
ler, Van Rensselaer, Sands, P. Ganesvoort, Jones, Duow,
Cruger, Strong, Powers. For the affirmative, 12 — nega-
tive, 11. This vote shows the strength of the parties in
the senate, which it will be perceived, was unusually
full. After Mr. J. Livingston had taken his seat, there
was a republican majority of two. Mr. Williams of
Washington county, seems to have been the most active
on the democratic side ; and Mr. Jones, who it will be
perceived, had changed from being a zealous anti-fede-
ralist, to an equally zealous federalist, was the most effi-
cient member in the opposition. He with several other
senators, caused a protest to be entered on the journals,
in which they insist with great force, that the senate are
by a right, secured by the constitution, of which they
could not be deprived by any law passed by the legisla-
ture, the judges of their own members, and whether they
were duly elected.*

* This able lawyer and useful legislator, it is said, was a little inclined to
■what is called trimming in politics. A mariner, if he has sea-room enough, will
sail with great ease, provided he will shift his sails every time the wind clwnges,
so that his vessel may be constantly running before the wind; and therefore man
elective government, the politician who tacks and trims his sails on all occasions
so as to catch the popular gale, is very appropriately called a trimmer. As Mr.
Jones was generally found acting with the majority of the southern district, it i-
not surprising that he acquired something of the character of a time sejver.
Though he by no means deserved it, for on all questions of principle, he was deci-
ded, firm, and unyielding. But he was a kind-hearted, social, companionable
man; and not only devised, but undoubtedly did much to advance the real pros-
perity of the community. There is so much frankness and good nature evinced by
the following anecdote related of him by the late Chief Justice Spencer, that 1 can.
not refrain from inserting it. While Judge Spencer was a state senator with Mr.
Jones, he said to him one day in a jocular manner, "how is this, Mr. Jones, the
majority in the southern district frequently changes ; at one time it is federal,
then it is republican; but whether the one or the other party have the majority,
you always get your election. Pray acquaint me with the means you use, which
secures you such constant success'" "Why, Spancer," said Jones, (his pronun-
ciation was broad,) " to tell you the truth, when my troops wo' nt follow me, J fol-
low them." The fact was, Mr. Jones while a member-of the convention at Pougl>-
keepsie which adopted the constitution, became in principle, separated from
Gov. Clinton, be being in favor, and the governor being opposed to tbal instru-
ment; but Mr. J. Continued to be ranked among the supporters of Ciinton, until
the election in April 1792, and the contest in relation to tlie canvassing commitice.

76 POLITICAL HISTORY

On the 13th of November, about eighty men, calling
themselves deputies, from various parts of the state, ap-
peared in New-York " to solicit," as they alledged, " a
legislative remedy for the late outrage said to have been
committed on the right of suffrage by a majority of the-
canvassing committee." They were introduced to the
bar of the assembly with great formality and solemnity
by Mr. J. O. Hoffman, who presented their memorial.
It was referred to a committee of the whole house ; and
ten days afterwards, the assembly went into committee
on that subject. A great number of witnesses were
sworn, and their depositions are entered at length on the
journals. Mr. Hoffman and Mr. James Kent were the
principal managers on the part of the memorialists. It
soon appeared very evident that there was a decided
majority opposed to any legislative action on the sub-
ject; but the investigation was pursued with great
eagerness on the part of the federalists, probably in order
to keep up and increase the popular excitement against
the s:overnor and his political friends. The disputes
about the formality of the proceedings and the proper
questions to be put to witnesses, together with the sub-
ject matter of the complaint, seemed to furnish never
ending topics of discussion.

On the other hand, the friends of Gov. Clinton, intro-
duced a memorial against William Cooper, first judge of
OtsecTO county, setting forth facts on which the memo-
rialists alledged that an impeachment might be founded
and prosecuted by the house against him. In support
of the charges, a vast number of witnesses were sworn
for and against Judge Cooper. The depositions of these
witnesses, so far as I have examined them, do not go to
prove any palpable misconduct in Mr. Cooper in the dis-
charge of his duty as a judge, or any illegal or corrupt
Acts done under color of his office ; but they certainly

OF NEW-YORK. 77

do show gross misconduct in him as a citizen, during the
canvass in Otsego, at the election between Jay and Clin-
ton. It was deposed that he encouraged illegal voting
in favor of Mr. Jay; that he knowingly had caused men
to vote who were not freeholders ; that he threatened
voters with suits who expressed a wish to vote for Mr.
Clinton, and that he menaced a Mr. Cannon, who came
to the polls to challenge illegal voters, that if he chal-
lenged any one, he (the judge,) would forthwith commit
him to jail. It must, however, very soon have been
evident that nothing could be proved against Judge
Cooper, on which an impeachment could be founded.
Still the investigation was pursued, and indeed was not
disposed of during that long session, which continued
through the winter, and I believe ran into the spring of
1793. For my part, I regard this legislature as spend-
ing the greater part of several months for the sole pur-
pose of playing a political game. The federalists had
instituted an investigation into the conduct of the can-
vassing committee ; not with a view of inducing any
legislative action, (for I do not believe that such
men as James Kent and many other federal members
would, if they had had the power, have ventured at that
time, by legislative enactments, to have declared the
election of Gov. Clinton, void,) but for the purpose of
rendering the governor odious, in consequence of the
rejection of the Otsego votes. As a sort of an offset or
countermine, I suppose the democratic party got up the
proceedings against judge Cooper with a view to turn
the attention of the public from the proceedings of the
convassers, to the improper conduct of the leader of the
Jay party in Otsego, and the illegal votes which were
there given for Mr. Jay. ■ The assembly finally decided-
in favor of the proceedings of the majority of the can-
vassers.

78 POLITICAL HISTORY

The Presidential electors cliosen at this session were
John Woodhull, Edward Savage, Johanus Brown, Wil-
liam Floyd, Abraham Ten Eyek, David Van Ness, Sam-
uel Clark, Abraham Yates, Jr., Yolkert Veeder, Samuel
Ward and Samuel Osgood, all I believe republicans.
They were nominated by ballot in each house, and the
successful candidates were nominated on the first ballot.
This is a very decisive proof that there was a decided
republican majority in both houses.

The election in April, 1793, resulted in a triumphant
federal majority — the southern, eastern and western dis-
tricts returned federal senators. From the southern dis-
trict Ezra L'Hommedieu and ]\latthew Clarkson were
chosen, in the eastern district; Zina Hitchcock was elect-
ed by about three hundred majority over Edward Savage,
and in the western. Jacobus Van Schoonhoven and Mi-
chael Myers were elected by more than sixteen hundred
majority. It was in the middle district only, where the
republican senatorial ticket succeeded by the election
of John Cantine and Reuben Hopkins.

During the summer of 1793, Mr. Genett, who had
lately arrived in the United States in quality of minis-
ter of tlie French Republic, visited New- York. He
was received by the republicans of that city with the
most cordial greetings. A committee was- appointed, of
which James Nicholson was chairman, who in behalf of
the republicans of New-York, made an address to him
expressive of great sympathy for the French people, and
highly complimentary to the minister. The federalists
of New- York thereupon held a meeting and adopted and
published spirited resolutions in support of the neutral
attitude assumed by the United States government, as
respected tlie belligerent nations of Europe.

The legislature met at Albany on the 7th of January,
1794. Jas. Watson of New-York was chosen speaker.

OP NEW-YORK.. 79

The governor in his address to the two houses, made
some general remarks in relation to the war in Europe.
He expressed a wish for the preservation of peace, but
complained that the British had not surrentlered the
western posts, according to the stipulation contained in
tiie treaty of 1783 ; and he animadverted with some
severity on the delay of Great Eritain in the perform-
ance of that part of the treaty.

At that time our criminal code was much more san-
guinary than at present. Several felonies besides that
of murder, by the laws then existing, were punished
with death. The governor recommended a revision
and amelioration of the criminal code. He urged that
the certainty rather than tlie severity of punishment was
the best and surest means of preventing crime, and he
closed his address with recommending union and harmo-
ny, and a speedy despatch of the public business. I
cannot refrain from remarking, that the speeches of Gov.
Clinton were all short, an example which it were to be
wished his successors had followed. Gov. Clinton's
speech on this occasion will be found excellent, both
in manner and matter.

In a few minutes after the governor and senate with-
drew from the assembly chamber, and as soon as the
speaker resumed the chair, Mr. Josiah Ogden Hoffman
of New- York, moved that the house should forthwith
proceed to the choice of a council of appointment. He
delivered a most violent philipic against the existing
council, and urged that they ought to be immediately
arrested in their nefarious course. He was supported
by Mr. Ambrose Spencer, who that session, was a mem-
ber of the assembly, and several other federal members.
The motion was opposed by Mr. Smith of Suffolk, and
Mr. Comstock of Saratoga, as unusual and unprece-
dented J and it was suggested that by the constitution,

80 POLITICAL HISTORY.

the members of the council had a rio;ht to hold their
offices for one year; that the present council had not
been in office a year, and should another council be
that evening chosen, the present council would have a
right to hold their offices and dischars;e the functions
appertaining to the council of appointment until a year
from the time of their election had expired. They
finally moved that the further consideration of the motion
should be postponed untU the next morning.

The postponement was resisted by Mr. Hoffman. He
alleged that the appointment of a fifth judge of the
supreme court had become necessary, that he had rea-
son to believe that if that officer should be appointed
by the present council, a very unsuitable man would be
selected — and he apprehended that unless the house
immediately elected a new council, the mischief would
be consummated that very evening.

The existing council, it will be remembered, consist-
ed of Messrs. Gelston, Hasbrouck and Woodworth,
republican, and Mr. Frey, a federalist. The federal par-
ty desired the appointment of Egbert Benson to the
office of supreme court judge, but the republicans were
generally in favor of Peter W. Yates, and Mr. H. knew
at any rate, that the majority of the council never
would consent to the appointment of Mr. Benson. It
is said Gov. Clinton doubted the propriety of adding
another judge to the bench of the supreme court, and
that the republican part of the council were divided in
their opinion as to the propriety of appointing Mr.
Yates. I find an entry in the books kept by the coun-
cil, at a meeting held some time before, from which it
appears, that the subject of appointing a fifth judge was
then agitated; that the council were divided, two of the
them expressing an opinion that an additional judge
was unnecessary, and that the other held an adverse

OF NEW-YORK. 81

opinion, but tlie two last mentioned councillors could
not agree on the person who ought to be appointed. It
does not appear that the governor expressed any opin-
ion ; but I am told by a gentleman* now living, of great
respectability, wlio is a son of one of the members of the
council, that the governor was indisposed to the ap-
pointment of Mr. Yates, but at the same time he wished
to avoid a direct refusal to nominate him, because such
refusal would disafFect some of his best friends. Under
these circumstances, it strikes me tliat the hot and
indecent haste of Mr. Hoffman and his friends, was
quite unjustifiable, it being most evident that as the
majority of the council were decided political friends
of the governor, had he been desirious that the appoint-
ment of a judge should have been made by that coun-
cil, he might have effected it, even at the very time and
while Mr. Hoffman was delivering his inflammatory
speech against the governor and council. One object of
Mr. Hoffman, however, might have been to continue and
increase the agitation of the public mind. Mr. Hoff-
man's motion was, notwithstanding the vigorous oppo-
sition made to it, adopted, and a council was that eve-
ning chosen, consisting of Philip Schuyler, Zina Hitch-
cock, Selah Strong and Reuben Hopkins, the three first
named gentlemen being federalists. Shortly after the
creation of the new council, Egbert Benson was appoint-
ed a judge of the supreme court.

On this occasion the members of the council, for the
first time, so far as I can ascertain, claimed and exer-
cised a concurrent right with the governor, to the nomi-
nation of officers. Mr. Clinton having refused to nom-
nate Mr. Benson, one of the council nominated him,
and three of them voting for him, he was declared duly
appointed. Gov. Clinton protested against this proceed •

• The Hon. John Woodworih.

6

82 POLITICAL HISTORY

ing, insisting that the exclusive right of nomination was
vested in him by the constitution.

A joint resolution, during this session, passed the
assembly, requiring the council of appointment to cause
the minutes of their proceedings to be published, but I
cannot find that it passed the senate.

A bill was introduced into the senate, authorizing
sheriffs of counties to hold their offices respectively
until new sheriffs should be appointed and should duly
qualify themselves for the execution of their office.
A preamble was attached to this bill, making the
act declaratory, and so worded as to imply a censure
upon the canvassing committee of 1792 ; but on the
motion of J\tr. Tillotson, it was struck out by one ma-
jority. This vote would seem to indicate that a majo-
rity of the senate was friendly to the governor. Four
senators were absent.

The assembly took into consideration the proceed-
ings on the memorial against Wiliam Cooper, which had
occupied so much of the time of that house at the last
session, and which was left by them as unfinished
business ; but Mr. Hoffman, previous to any discussion,
offered a resolution purporting that the complaints
against Judge Cooper, of official misconduct, was not
supported by the evidence, and that the memorial be
dismissed " as frivolous and vexatious.'^ A motion was
made to strike out that part of the resolution which
directed the memorial to be dismissed as frivolous and
vexatious, but it failed, forty to nineteen. Among the
names of those who voted with tlie majority, I find that
of Ambrose Spencer, The assembly further resolved
that the clerk should cause that resolution to be pub-
lished in three of the public newspapers. That there
was no proof of official misconduct, is undoubtedly
correct, for the depositions are to be found among the

\ ^KW-yoRK. 83

minutes of the assembly, and I have examined them
with care. But unless the testimony of Andrew Can-
non, James Moore, (a very respectable man,) Mr. Tur-
niciifF, who was then a magistrate, and Judge Hudson,
of Cherry Valley, were absolutely false, surely the me-
morial was not '■'•frivolous.^'' This was unquestionably
a party vote, and shows tlie great strength of the fede-
ralists that year in the assembly. \See JVote A. Vol. 2.]

A bill was introduced into the assembly, which be-
came a law, amending the statute regulating elec-
tions, and requiring the town inspectors to canvass the
votes, and return the result of their canvass in the
same manner substantially, as is now practised.

After this, nothing material occurred, as relates to
the movements of the two parties, until after the election,
in 1794. That election terminated as the preceding
one had done, in favor of the federalists.

In the western district, Stephen Van Rensselaer and
John Frey were re-elected to the senate almost without
opposition. They received more than five thousand
votes, and the opposing candidates failed of obtaining
more than two hundred and forty.

In October, 1794, the governor caused to be published
a protest, drawn up by him on the last day of tlie meet-
ing of the council, which was the 24th of March prece-
ding, and filed by him in the office of the secretary of
state, against the proceedings of the majority of the
council.

It appears that the council had decided, that in all ca-
ses where the number of officers, such as judges, justices
of the peace, &c., was not ascertained and limited by
law, the number should be fixed by the majority of the
council, and that in cases where the officer was required
to be commissioned annually, as in the case of sheriffs,
the council had a right to resist the re-appointment of

84 POLITICAL HISTORY

the incumbent without assigning any cause ; and there-
by, as Mr. Clinton alleged, displacing the officer. The
governor in his protest, alleged that by the constitution
he was charged with the faithful execution of the laws,
and he therefore inferred, that according to the spirit of
the constitution, lie was, in cases not provided for by le-
gislative enactment, vested with exclusive discretion in
respect to the number of officers necessary for the proper
execution of the laws, f/c, being held responsible for
such execution, Avas necessarily the judge of the proper
means of effecting it. If that discretion was confided to
others, so many officers might be created as to cause
confusion, or so few that the force would not be compe-
tent to accomplish the end.

Again, he alleged that although by the words of the
constitution, the continuation of an incumbent in office,
was, by the constitution, referred to the pleasure of the
council, " by this was not intended a capriciousy arbitrary
pleasure, but a soicnd discretion to be exercised for the
promotion of the public good?'' That a contrary practice
would tend to render the action of the government un-
stable, and the administration of justice unsafe; and he
added, that whenever parties exist, the consequence of
this practice would be " to deprive men of their oficcs he-
cause they have too much independence of spirit to sup-
port 'measures they suppose injurious to the community ;
and might induce others from undue attuchmeiit to office,
to sacrifice their integrity to improper considerations.''^
When it is recollected, that at the time this remark was
made, neither the council on Avhose conduct the governor
animadverted, nor any other class of men, entertained
for a moment, the idea of removincr able and faithful offi-
cers because of their political opinions ; but that the
governor complained because the council then in office
had merely refused to re-appoint persons eligible to a

or NEW- YORK. 85

re-appointment, who liad discharged their duty faith-
fully, we cannot fail to perceive the severity of this re-
buke to subsequent councils, many of whom we shall
see were the governor's own political friends.

Upon the publication of this document, Gen. Schuyler,
Selah Strong and Zina Hitchcock, the three federal
members of the council, published a very long reply to
it, in which they endeavored to show that Gov. Clin-
ton's practice had not corresponded with the precepts
contained in his protest. Eut it will be found that they
do not make out a very strong case. They cite several
instances where appointments in the militia were made
not according to seniority ; and particularly the case of
Gen. John Williams of Washington county, then a mem-
ber of the state senate, who had, during the revolution-
ary war, been removed from the office of colonel, and
expelled from the senate, in consequence of a charge
against him of peculation and of defrauding the officers
and privates of his regiment, but who had subsequently
been appointed out of the regular order of military pro-
motion to the office of brigadier general. The only civil
case to which they refer, is that of Benjamin Gilbert,
who in the winter of 1792, was appointed sheriff of the
county of Otsego, and at the end of the year, in 1793, the
governor had nominated, and with the consent of the
council, appointed Samuel Dickson his successor, with-
out giving Mr. Gilbert any notice of charges against
him. Mr. G. was an active and zealous partizan of
Judge Cooper ; and the documents which had been com-
municated to the legislature on the subject of the re-
jection of the Otsego votes with the memorial against
Judge Cooper, implicated him, or at least shewed him to
be an heated and over-zealous partizan. That these
grave counsellors, after their laborious search, should
have been able to find only one instance of a civil ap-

86 POLITICAL HISTOKY.

pointment, and that an extreme one, wherein they
thought they had a right to complain of the governor's
practice as having been inconsistent with his doctrine,
is, in my judginent, high evidence of the unexception-
ble manner in which he had generally exercised the ap-
pointing power.*

The legislature met in Poughkeepsie, January 6, 1795.
Gen. North of Duanesburgh was chosen speaker. The
contest was between him and the late speaker, Mr. Wat-

* To show the manner of proceeding by the council during Gov. Clinton's
administration, when an attempt was made to remove au officer who held his
office during the pleasure of the appointing power, I give the following extract
from the minutes of the council of 17S7, at which time the collectors of the cus-
toms were appointed by that body.

"At a council of appointment held at the senate chamber in the city of New-
York, on Saturday, the 21st day of April, 17S7.

Present— His Excellency George Clinton, Esq. President,

Mr. Russell, ) -y, . „ Mr. Hathorn, } -.^ , „

Mr. Floyd, ' \ ^I^mbers. ^^^ Schuyler. \ -^lembers.

James Giles, Esq. exhibited the following charges against John Lamb, collector
of the port of Xew-York :

" That one Stone informed him that three cheeses were taken coming on shore
from the packet, without a permit : that the collector being informed thereof,
said it would not answer to libel them, as the expense of libelling was too high ;
that they were thereupon divided, and the collector took one. That Mr. Stevens,
one of the tide waiters, had applied to him to libel seven cheeses which had
been seized for being landed contrary to law; that he drew the libel ; on which
Mr. Stevens desired him to stop the prosecution, because the collector told him the
expenses would exceed the value of the cheese ; that the said Stevens informed
him that the said cheeses were divided between the collector and him.

" The said Jolin Lamb being present, requested of the council to be heard in his
defence ; whereupon Resolved, that the council will be ready to hear the parties
with their respective evidences on Monday nest, at nine o'clock in the morning,"
to which time the council then adjourned.

On Monday, 23d April, the council met pursuant to adjournment. The parties
appeared, and the above and several other charges were exhibited by Mr. Giles
and Mr. Roorback against Mr. Lamb. The record then slates that

" The council having heard the proofs, and allegations in support of the seve-
ral charges exhibited as aforesaid against John Lamb, esquire, and having also
examined the books of the custom house, and the several manifests and vouchers,
as to the duties in the several cases in which such malpractices where charged,
and having duly considered the same,

" Resolred, That in the opinion of this council, the charges exhibited against the
said John Lamb, esquire, are wholly unsupported and groundless, and that from
the investigation of the said charges, and the evidence produced in support of them
nothing hath appeared to alter in the least degree, the good opinion this council
entertains of the fidelity and integrity of the said collector in the execution of
bis office.'"

OF NEW-YORK. 87

son. Both gentlemen were federalists, but the northern
and western members generally supported North, and he
was elected by a vote of thirty- three against twenty-eio-ht.

Governor Clinton addressed a letter to the lieutenant gov-
ernor and speaker of the house, dated at Greenw^ich, where
he then was, informing them that he was and had been for
a long time confined to his room by sickness, (the inflamma-
tory rheumatism,) and that he was apprehensive he should
be unable personally to be at Poughkcepsie during the
session ; he therefore, instead of the usual annual speech,
sent them a written message.

In his messsage, he exhorted the legislature to take
measures for putting the state in a better condition to re-
pel invasion, and he again urged upon the legislature the
propriety of revising the criminal laws. He recommended
confinement at hard labor to be substituted for the punish-
ment of many crimes for which death was then inflicted.
He also reminded the legislature, that while liberal provi-
sions had been made for the endowment of colleges and
other seminaries in -which the hio;her branches of learnino-
were taught, no legislative aid had yet been given to Com-
mon Schools, and he recommended that provisions should
be made for their improvement and encouragement. This
was the first official movement made in this state in behalf
of those institutions — institutions upon which, under God,
depend the preservation of the rights and liberties of the
people of this state. I am happy to perceive that the legis-
lature did not disregard this recommendation ; on the
contrary, at that very session, they passed a law appropri-
ating annually for five years the sum of fifty thousand dol-
lars, and directed the specific sums to be paid by the treas-
urer to each county. The act further provided, that the
board of supervisors in the respective counties, should ap-
portion the money among the respective towns, and a sum
equal to one-half the sum received from the state by the

88 POLITICAL HISTORY

several towns was required to be raised by a tax on such
town and added to the bounty of the state. The sum thus
made up was to be distributed in each school district un-
der the direction of town commissioners.

Jacobus Van Schoonhoven, Richard Hatfield, William
Powers, and Joseph Hasbrouck were elected members of
the council of appointment this year, the three former of
whom were federalists. The election of Mr. Hasbrouck
was unanimous. The averace vote on the choice of the
other members was thirty-six to twenty-nine ; showing a
federal majority in the assembly of seven.

The term of service of Rufus King, in the U. S. Senate,
was to expire on the 4th March, 1795, and on the 27th
January, he was re-elected for the six succeeding years.
The vote stood for Mr. K. in the senate, two majority ; in
the assembly, five. About this time. Gov. Clinton publish-
ed an address to the Freeholders of the state of New-
York, dated on the 22nd January, in which he declined
being a candidate for governor at the ensuing election.
The letter, like all his written communications, is short,
but it does honor to his head and heart. He had held, he
said, for nearly thirty years elective offices, [he was seve-
ral years a member of the colonial assembly,] which had
compelled him to devote almost all his time to the dis-
charge of the duties connected with them, and his private
affairs required his attention. His health, too, had be-
come, so much impaired, as to render it his duty to retire
from active businsss. In allusion to the office he then
he'd, he said he "withdrew from a situation never solicit-
ed by him, which he accepted with diffidence, and from
which," said he, " I shall retire with pleasure." He thank-
ed them cordially and feelingly for their continued confi-
dence and support during the tryingscenes through which
he had passed. He was then about fifty-six years old.

or NEW-YORK. 89

Lieut. Gov. Van Cortland at the same time declined
a re-election in consequence of his advanced age.

Mr. Clinton had filled the exective chair from the
organization of the government; but the step row-
taken by him rendered certain that a change in that im-
portant office would be produced at the next election.
Some difficulty was felt by the federalists in the selec-
tion of a candidate for governor. Mr- Hamilton was
spoken of, but he positively declined. Mr. Jay was in
England, where he had been sent, much against his own
wishes, to negotiate a treaty with the government of
that country. He was beyond question, not only the
most competent, but personally the most unexception-
able candidate; and the indignation felt at the manner
in which his election had been defeated in 1792, furnish-
ed additional capital in his favor. It was, however, then
generally anticipated that Mr. Jay would conclude a
treaty with Great Britain, and the warm sympathy felt
for the French republic, combined with the existing
prejudices against Great Britain, which pervaded the
mass of people in the state of New-York, rendered it
more than probable, that Mr. Jay's treaty would be
unpopular, and that a portion of odium would attach to
the negociator. This consideration might well have
excited, and did in fact produce doubts of the expedi-
ency of fixing upon Mr. Jay as the gubernatorial candi-
date ; but then it w^as expected that the contents of the
treaty, if one should be concluded, would not be made
public until after the election, and it would be too absurd
for a party to oppose Mr. Jay for agreeing to make a
treaty, without knowing what that treaty contained.
The event justified the expectation of the federalists.
The contents of the treaty were not publicly known till
the 2nd July, 1795.

90 rOI.TTICAL HISTORY

The federalists finally, at a sort of legislath-e caucus,
nominated John Jay for governor, and Stephen Van
iiensselaer for lieutenant governor. Mr. William Jay
(L Jay, 355) says this nomination was made without the
knov/ledge of his father.

The democratic party, after anxiously looking about
for candidates, at length selected Chief Justice Yates
for governor, and William Floyd for lieutenant gover-
nor. CoL Burr had been spoken of as a candidate, T
believe, by individuals of both parties, but his nomina-
tion by the majority of either party could not be obtain-
ed. Judge Yates surely could not complain of a want
of public attention, for within the space of six years,
he was the candidate for both political parties, and must
at one time and the other have received the votes of
nearly all the freeholders in the state. If we were
allowed to consider the two elections one, he actually
received the votes of nearly all the freeholders in the
state for the office of goy&rnor, and yet was not elected.
W^as not such a result politically right ?

At the April election, in 1795, Mr. Jay and Mr. Van
Rensselaer received a large majority of the votes of the
freeholders of the state, and were declared by the state
canvassers duly elected. The federalists also obtained a
m?iority in both houses of the legislature.

TMi \

i

'y---^ .'•^ -'^^ l//t-.'j ^-c-m. a, £ujc bj^ ^h;.r.' .

i ./22S^-

fu^. Su J.k J Harper.

OF NEW- YORK. 91

CHAPTER IV.

FROM APRIL, 1796, TO MAY, 1798.

The senators elected this year, were John D. Coe,
Richard Hatfield, Philip Livingston, Ambrose Spencer
and John Frey, all of them federalists.

De Witt Clinton, afterwards governor of the state,
was one of the candidates of the republicans of New-
York, for member of the assembly from the city, but fail-
ed of obtaining his election.

The result of the state canvass was declared on the
26th May, and two days afterwards, Mr. Jay arrived in
New- York, from the court of London, after an absence of
a year and sixteen days.* His arrival was hailed by the
acclamations of the inhabitants of his native city. " A
large concourse of citizens," says Mr. William Jay, " as-
sembled to welcome their new governor, and to greet the
envoy whose successful mission procured peace to the
country ; the crowd attended him to his dwelling, and
the ringing of bells and the firing of cannon evinced the
joy his arrival had inspired." — (1 Joy, 356.)

Although the biography of Gov. Jay, to which I have
referred, was written by his son. Judge Jay of Westches-
ter county, it is nevertheless most evidently executed with
great candor and impartiality, and a sacred regard to
truth, as is everything else that comes from the pen of
that pure and benevolent man. Notwithstanding this, I

* He sailed for England, May 12, 1794.— 1 Jay, 314.

92 POLITICAL HISTORY

cannot but suggest that public demonstrations of approba-
tion and respect for men possessed of power, and who at
their discretion, dispose of state patronage, are in most
instances, even in this free country, extremely deceptive.
That there were many in that great assemblage of citi-
zens, who joined with the multitude in shouting hosannas
to Mr. Jay, " who followed him for the loaves andfishes^^
but whose hearts at that moment burned with envy and
jealousy, I have not a shadow of doubt. The outbreak
of popular indignation which shortly afterw^ards was ex-
hibited on the publication of the British treaty, afford pre-
sumptive evidence of the truth of this suggestion.

It would be quite foreign from my object to discuss the
merits of that treaty, and at this time, such a discussion
would be useless, even if its merits came within the scope
of the task I have undertaken to perform. It must suffice
to remark, that while on the one hand, I believe it will be
now admitted, that the treaty did contain some stipulations
seriously objectionable ; on the other, that, considering;
the relative situation of the two nations, it w^as the best
treaty which could at that time have been obtained, that
few men, and perhaps no other man in the United States
except Mr. Jay, would have been able to have procured
a treaty as favorable to America as the one in question ;*
that its rejection would have brought on a war between
Great Britain and this country, and that its ratification with
all its imperfections, was less injurious to the United
States than a war at that time would have been.

But so prevalent was party spirit, and so intemperate
was its zeal, that the treaty was denounced before its con-
tents were known. Some of the newspapers, claiming to
be republican, being, as I fear, too much under the influ-
ence of Mr. Genet, who dexterously availed himself of

* Gov. Jay and Lord Grenville the British ncgociator, were personal fViends

or NEW-YORK. 93

tlie sympathy of the Americans in favor of the Freneh m
their struggle for liberty and equality, before it was known
what the treaty contained, discoursed in the following
manner : " The United States are a republic. Is it advan-
tageous for a republic to have a connexion with a mon-
arch ? Treaties lead to war. * * * jf \\^q influence
of a treaty is added to the influence which Great Brit-
ain already has in our goverament^ we shall be colonized
anew." * * * " No treaty ought to have been made
with Great Britain. * * To make a treaty with Great
Britain is forming connexion with a monarch."

On the 2d of July, the treaty was published in a news-
paper in Philadelphia. " This act" says Wm. Jay, " was
putting the torch to that vast mass of combustibles which
the party had long been engaged in collecting, and the in-
tended explosion instantly followed." Mr. Jay was
burnt in effigy by the mob in Philadelphia, two days after
the treaty was made public. The effigy bore a pair of
scales, one labelled " American Liberty and Indepen-
dence," and the other " British Gold." From the mouth
of the figure, proceeded the following words : " Come up
to my price, and I will sell you my country." Public
meetings were held in almost every part of the union,
denouncing the treaty. In New-York, one was convened
in the open air, and attended by an immense crowd.
Gen. Hamilton attempted to address the meeting, but
was pelted with stones, and compelled to retreat. The
party, after adopting violent resolutions against the treaty,
marched with the American and French colors flying, to
a place opposite the governor's house, and burned the
treaty. — (1. Jay^ 360.)

It is by no means impossible, that some of the very men
who were active in this violent outrage, composed a part
of the company who but " a little month " before, had con-

94 POLITICAL HISTORY

ducted Mr. Jay to his house with shouts of applause — so
transient is popular favor !

It would be doing injustice to the great body of the re-
publicans of this state, to charge them with participating in,
or approving of, these outrages. The candid and reflect-
ing part of that party opposed Mr. Jay, because they con-
sidered him as acting in concert wnth Gen. Hamilton, in
the attempt to monopolize and so to bestow the patronage
of the general government as to prostrate all who, (how-
ever conscientiously,) had opposed the adoption of the
federal constitution • and especially Governor Clinton,
whom the republicans considered an able statesman and
sound patriot. They also apprehended that Mr. Jay being
now constituted the dispenser of the patronage of the state
government would, in connection with Gen. Hamilton,
who in reality wielded the national patronage, so distri-
bute the same as greatly to increase the personal influence
of Mr. Hamilton and his immediate coadjutors, which they
considered already too formidable. But the substantial
ground of opposition, by the republicans to Mr. Jay and
the leading federalists was, that they entirely disapproved
of some of their avowed political opinions, of which I
shall speak more particularly hereafter, in relation to the
powers which of right ought to be exercised by the gene-
ral government.

If the British treaty had been published on the first of
April, instead of the first of July, it is not probable that
Mr. Jay would have been elected governor ; for to those
who from the considerations I have just mentioned were
opposed to him, would have been added all those who, at
the instant the treaty was published, disapproved of it.
It is true Mr. Jay was re-elected in 1798, but that was af-
ter the federal party had had ample time to rally from the
shock produced by the publication of the treaty, and after
they had for three years enjoyed the aid of the patronage

OF NEW-YORK. 95

of the state and national goyernmentsj with which to
strengthen themselves. In proof that this hypothesis is
correct, it may be remarked, that the city of New-York,
which until the summer of 1795, was nearly unanimously
federal, in December, (the month in which the election of
members of congress was at that time made,) Mr. Edward
Livingston, a very decided republican was elected to con-
gress in opposition to Mr. James Watson, a very popular
man, who was the federal candidate.

On the 6th January, 1796, the legislature convened in
the city of New-York. Gen. North was again elected
speaker against Mr. Watson, by a vote of twenty-nine to
eighteen.

The new governor in his speech at the opening of the
session, after expressing his gratitude to the freeholders
of the state for the confidence placed .in him, as evinced by
their votes at the recent election, declared his determina-
tion " to regard all his fellow-citizens with an equal eye,
and to cherish and advance merit wherever found.'''' This
determination was in theory noble, and deserving of the
highest commendation ; but it is deeply to be regretted
that neither Gov. Jay or any other individual holding the
appointing power could, even if sincerely disposed, carry
it into effect in the then, and in the present, state of public
feeling, w^ithout a sacrifice of himself and his party. The
best and most virtuous men 77iust, in the distribution of
patronage, yield to the influence of party considerations.
This is excused, if not justified, by the following process
of reasoning : — An honest and patriotic citizen will, from
conscientious motives, attach himself to that party which
he believes will pursue those measures which, in his judg-
ment, are best calculated to advance the prosperity and
happiness, and most effectually preserve the liberty and
independence of his country. If vested with the appoint-
ing power, it therefore becomes his duty to confer offices

»

96 POLITICAL HISTORY

on such men as will use the influence created by such of-
fice, to increase and strengthen that party, the ascendancy
of which, in the opinion of the person appointing, is iden-
tified with the best interests of the state. Hence, although
he ought not under any circumstances, to appoint incom-
petent or unworthy men to office, yet between worthy
men of equal capacity, it is his duty to select those who
concur with him in opinion, as respects the measures best
calculated to advance the public good. This reasoning,
if not conclusive, is at least plausible. The governor re-
commended to the legislature to provide without delay for
the defence of the state in case of war. In the course of
his speech, he stated that doubts had arisen as to the true
construction of the constitution in relation to the exclusive
right of the person administering the government, to nomi-
nate all officers to the council of appointment : alluding,
no doubt, to the disputes between the late Gov. Clinton
and ihe council, which occurred at the recent appointment
of Judge Benson ; and he requested the legislature to pass
a declaratory law on that subject. He also recommended
that provisions should be made for the payment of a sala-
ry or pension to the chancellor and judges of the supreme
court, after they should become ineligible by age to hold
their respective offices.

The answer of the two houses was respectful and high-
ly complimentary. To show how far the senate were in-
clined to extend their courtesy to the executive, and to
soothe if not flatter the feelings of the governor, I cannot
forbear to note, that in the original draft of the answer of
the senate, I find the following sentence : " The evidence
of ability, integrity and patriotism which have been afford-
ed by your conduct, in the discharge of the variety of ar-
duous and important public trusts, authorize us to antici-
pate an administration conducive to the welfare of your
constituents." When the senate was in committee of the

or NEW-YOBK. 97

whole on the answer as reported by the select committee,
Mr. Spencer moved to add the word " invariahly " be-
tween the words " heen " and " afforded^'' so that the sen-
tence would read, " The evidence of ability, integrity and
patriotism which have been invariahly atforded," &c. In
favor of this amendment, were Cruger, Halfield, Frey,
Jones, Ph. Livingston, Myers, Russell, Schuyler, Spen-
cer, Strong, and Van Schoonhoven, 11 j against it, were
Cantine, Hopkins, L'Hommedieu, Abm. Schenck, John
Schenck, and Woodworth, 6. It is unnecessary to com-
ment on this instance of legislative sycophancy.

So far as the two houses referred in their answer to par-
ticular parts of the governor's speech, they concurred with
him in the measures which he recommended, but they
carefully avoided any allusions to the questions relating to
the exclusive right of the governor to nominate to office,
or the propriety of pensioning the chancellor and judges
of the supreme court. The legislature declined acting on
either of those subjects.* On this question the parties
were situated rather singularly ; and action upon it would
have been embarrassing to each of them. The federalists
whose interest it now was that the governor should retain
the exclusive right of nomination, could not pass an act
declaring that right vested in him, without an indirect
censure upon their friends in and out of the council of
appointment, who insisted that, by the constitution, the
council held a right of nomination concurrent with the
governor, at the time when Egbert Benson was appointed
a judge of the supreme court. On the other hand, it had
now become the interest of the republican party, which
then contended that the governor was vested with the ex-
clusive right of nomination, to resist the exercise of the

* Gen. Morris of Otsego did, it is true, on the 29th January, on his own motion,
biing a biU into the assembly declaring that the governor possessed the sole right
of nominating to office, but it does not appear to have been acted upon definitely.

7

98 POLITICAL HISTORY

right, and of course, to deny that it existed. Under such
circumstances, it is not at all surprising that Mr. Morris
"was unable to obtain any decisive action on his bill,
although it was recommended by the governor.

It is to be presumed that reflecting men of both parties,
were indisposed to commence the practice of pensioning
persons who had held civil offices, because they had held
them.

The council of appointment chosen this year consisted of
Joshua Sands, Abraham Schenck, Ebenezer Russell, and
Michael Myers, three of whom were federalists.

During the session, Mr. Jones brought in a bill to facili-
tate the trial of criminal cases at the oyer and terminer
courts, by dividing the state into districts and providing
for the appointment of a prosecuting attorney in each dis-
trict, which passed into a law. I observe that these offi-
cers were called assistant attorney generals, a name more
appropriate than that of district attornies, which has since
been given them. Jacob RatclifF was, under this law, ap-
pointed assistant attorney general for the district compo-
sed of Dutchess, Orange, and Ulster ; Ambrose Spencer
for the district composed of Columbia, &c. Mr. James
Kent, who had recently removed from the county of
Dutchess to the city of New-York, was appointed master
in chancery. All these gentlemen afterwards held high
judicial stations.

By a census returned to the office of the secretary of
state on the 20th January, 1796, it appeared that the num-
ber of freeholders in the state amounted to thirty-six thou-
sand three hundred and thirty-eight, and the voters, inclu-
ding voters for members of assembly, amounted to sixty-
six thousand and seventeen. The number of freeholders
in the city and county of New-York, were two thousand
one hundred and forty-four, and the total number of voters
seven thousand two hundred and seventy-two. The

OF NEW-YORK. 99

great increase of freeliolders, since the last census had
been taken, was caused principally by the constant and
rapid emigration from the New England states to the
western district. That district then included the county
of Albany and all the counties west of it.

At the time of the adoption of the constitution, in 1777, *
the number of senators was fixed at twenty-four, but, by
the twelfth article, when the number of electors in any one
district should increase to an amount equal to one twenty-
fourth of their whole number in the state, as then existing,
an additional senator should be chosen by such district j
and, by another article, the number of senators might be
thus increased until the whole number of senators should
amount to one hundred. Therefore, according to the
census of 1796, in pursuance of these regulations, forty-
four senators were to be chosen, seventeen of whom were
to be elected from the western district. But, for the pur-
pose of equalizing the districts, an act was soon afterwards
passed, annexing the counties of Albany and Saratoga to
the eastern district.

Governor Jay was known to be in favor of the abo-
lition of slavery in this state j but he omitted, as his son
(Judge Jay) thinks, to recommend that measure in his
speech, " from the conviction that in the present state of
politics such a proposition emanating from him would en-
list the spirit of party in opposition to a measure against
which the prejudices of a large portion of the community
■were already enlisted." But, according to the same wri-
ter, a few days after the commencement of the session,
" an intimate friend of the governor's obtained leave to
introduce a bill for the gradual abolition of slavery." — (1
Jay^ 390.)

The bill underwent a long and somewhat heated dis-
cussion, and was finally got rid of by a resolution offered
by one of the members opposed to abolition, purporting

100 POLITICAL HISTORY

that it would be unjust to deprive any citizen of his pro-
perty, unless a reasonable compensation for the value of it
should be paid to him by the state. On this resolution,
the vote stood thirty-one to thirty-one, but it was carried
by the casting vote of the chairman of the committee of
the whole. Mr. Foote, afterwards first judge of the county
of Delaware, was the chairman, and gave the casting
vote.

No other material event operating on the. action of
political parties, occurred during this session of the legis-
lature.

The election in the spring of 1796, teiminated highly
favorable to the federalists. The excitement in relation
to the British treaty had partially subsided. The violent
conduct of the French republic and their agent in this
country, the popularity of Gen. Washington, the purity
of Gov. Jay's character, and the rectitude of his conduct,
together with the governmental patronage, had enabled
the federalists to recover the ground which they lost im-
mediately after the promulgation of the treaty. In the
southern district, Messrs. Haight, Onderdonk, Strong, and
Watson were elected to the senate by a majority of about
fifteen hundred. In the middle district, the senators cho-
sen were, Robert Sands, C. Tappan and Wm. Thomson.
The election in this district was very close, Mr. Tappan
being the only republican who succeeded. In the eastern
district, E. Clarke, M. Vail, J. Savage, P. Sylvester and
A. Ten Eyck, all federalists, were chosen by a majority
of from one to eight hundred. In the western district,
the federal ticket succeeded almost without opposition,
and Jed. Sanger, Jas. Gordon, Leonard Gansevoort,
Thomas Morris, Thomas R. Gold, John Richardson,
Johannes Dietz, Vincent Matthews, Jacob Morris, Leo-
nard Brown, Francis Nicol, Joseph White, and Abraham
Arndt were elected. The great number of new senators

OF NEW-YORK. 101

chosen from the western district gave the federalists a
prodigious preponderance in the senate.

The legislature met in the city of New-York, on the
first of November. The occasion of meeting thus early
was in order to make choice of presidential electors.
Gulian Verplanck of New-York, was chosen speaker.
The governor's speech contained nothing which it is ne-
cessary particularly to notice. It is, however, an excel-
lent document, and the youthful student will find himself
Well repaid for perusing it. The governor's eulogy upon
Gen. Washington, who had declined a re-election, is ad-
mirable. Upon the refusal of Washington to become a
third time a candidate for the presidency, the federalists
of the northern and eastern states were in favor of Mr-
John Adams. That such was the inclination of an im-
mense majority of the federalists of New-York, I have no
manner of doubt. That Gov. Jay was not only the poli-
tical, but personal friend of Mr. Adams, is most evident
from his correspondence with that distinguished indivi-
dual.— (See 1 Joy, 417.) But from a letter or pamphlet,
written and published by Gen. Hamilton, in the year
1800, on which I shall have occasion hereafter to remark
more particularly, it appears that his favorite candidate
for the presidency was Thomas Pinckney, of South-Caro-
lina, the federal candidate for vice-president. I hardly
need mention, that by the United States constitution pre-
vious to its amendment, which was made shortly after the
election of 1800, the president and vice-president were to
beboth voted for on one ticket, without designating which
was intended for the one or the other ofiice; and the person
having the highest number of votes was elected president,
and he who received the next highest number of votes
was chosen vice-president. Mr. Hamilton urged the
northern and eastern federalists to give- Messrs. Adams
and Pinckney an equal number of votes, and it appears

102 POLITICAL HISTORY /

from the letter to which I have referred, that he hoped
that by chance or some other means, Mr. Adams might be
left off of some of the southern tickets, which contained
the name of Mr. Pinckney, and in that event he would
have been elected. This event actually occurred. The
state of South-Carolina gave eight votes to Thomas Pinck-
ney, and eight votes to Thomas Jefferson. Whether this
was done by " chance" or design, it would have caused
the election of Mr. Pinckney for president, had all the
other federal states followed the advice of Gen. Hamil-
ton, and it is not improbable that he and some of his
South-Carolina friends expected they would do so ; but,
unfortunately for the projectors of the scheme, if such a
scheme was projected, the federal states of Rhode-Island
and New-Hampshire gave their votes for Oliver Ells-
worth, Massachusetts gave two votes to Samuel Johnson,
and Connecticut gave four votes to John Jay, in conse-
quence of which Mr. Pinckney fell behind Mr. Jefferson,
the republican candidate, who was elected vice-presi-
dent.*

At the time of the choice of presidential electors in
New-York, the republican party must have been much
discouraged and disheartened by the result of the recent

*As I shall have occasion again to refer to this election, I will here give the ro
suit of the presidential canvass, as ascertained in congress, Feb. 8, 1797.

Adams. Jeffenon. Pinckney. Burr. S. Adams. Clinton.

Tennessee, — 3 — 3 — —

Kentucky, — 4 — 4 — —

Georcia, — 4 — — — 4

S. Carolina, .— 8 6 — — —

N.Carolina, 1 11 1 6 — —

Virginia, 1 20 1 1 16 —

Maryland, 7 4 4 3 — —

Delaware, 3 — 3 — — —

Pennsylvania, 1 14 2 13 — —

New-Jersey, 7 — 7 — — —

New- York, 12 — 12 — — —

Conncciicut, a, 9 — 4 — — —

Rhode Island, 6, — 4 — — — —

Massachusetts, c,-- • 16 — 13 — — —

Vermont, 4 — 4 — — —

New-Hampshire, d,- 6 — — — — —

71 63 63 30 15 4

•. John Jay, 4 Totei. b. Oliver Ellsworth, 4. c. S. Johnson, 2. d. Oliver Kl
worth, &

OF NEW-YORK. 103

election, and it is not probable that any considerable inter-
est was felt in the selection of candidates, cither for presi-
dent or vice-president. There can, however, be little
doubt but that they were unanimous in their desire that
Mr. Jefferson should be elected president, and that Geo.
Clinton was their favorite candidate for the vice-presiden-
cy, however faint might be their hopes of success. The
result of the canvass proves, that the democratic party m
the nation, had not, as a party, fixed upon any individual
as their candidate for vice-president. Col. Burr, being at
that time in the senate of the U. S., and in habits of daily
intercourse with the southern republicans, received the
greatest number of the democratic votes, but the votes of
Georgia were given to gov. Clinton, and fifteen of the
votes of Virginia were cast for Samuel Adams of Massa-
chusetts. Before I dismiss this subject, I cannot help
remarking, that, at this early period, local and sectional
feelings seem to have had an influence. It is impossible,
in any other way, to account for the fact that Mr. Adams
received but two votes south of the Potomac, and that Mr.
Jefferson obtainedbut eighteen votes, (and those were from
Penn. and Maryland,) north of that river ; and that this
took place, notwithstanding the election was so very
close, — the majority for Mr. Adams being only three.

The legislature, early in the session, proceeded to
choose presidential electors. All of them, were of course,
federalists, and they, therefore, gave the twelve votes of
the state of New-York, to Mr. Adams, and Mr. Thomas
Pinckney of South Carolina.

Mr. Rufus King had been recently appointed minister
to London, which left his seat in the U. S. senate vacant.
It therefore became necessary to appoint a successor.
The two houses thereupon elected to that office John Law-
rence. What were the peculiar circumstances which in-
duced this gentleman's election, I ha\;^ never been in-

104 POLITICAL HISTORY

formed. He had, I believe, served in the army of the
revolution, as colonel of a regiment, and, after the peace,
had devoted himself to the practice of law in the city of
New-York, and was, at the time of his election, an U. S.
judge of the district of New-York.

On the 11th Nov. the legislature adjourned to meet at
the city of Albany, on the 3d of January, and on that day
accordingly, the two houses convened at Albany. On the
13th January, 1797, the assembly chose the following
gentlemen members of the council of appointment, for the
ensuing year : Andrew Onderdonk, Ambrose Spencer,
Leonard Gansevoort, and Thomas Morris, all federalists.

A law was passed this year, creating the office of comp-
troller. This bill transferred the powers and duties of
the auditor to the comptroller, and conferred on the latter
officer other powers, and required of him the performance
of other duties. It was evidently the intention of the fra-
mers of the constitution, that the treasurer should be the
great financial officer of the government j hence, the ex-
treme caution in relation to the frequency, and manner of
his appointment. But the law creating a comptroller, of
which Mr. Jones seems to have been the principal author,
and the subsequent acts of the legislature, in connexion
with the natural working of the governmental machinery,
have constituted the comptroller the great state officer j
and the treasurer has become a mere clerk to the comp-
troller : a nominal keeper of the funds of the state, which
are manag-ed and disbursed under the direction of the
comptroller. On the industry, capacity, and integrity
of that officer, the prosperity of the state is more depend-
ant than any single officer of the government, whether
such officer is created by the appointing power or by the
election of the people. After the adjournment of the
legislature. Gen. Banker, treasurer, resigned his office as

OF NEW-YORK. 105

treasurer. Mr. Samuel Jones of the senate, was appointed
by the council of appointment, the first comptroller.

The county of Delaware, was this year erected from the
counties of Albany and Ulster, with the right of sending two
members to the legislature. A law also was passed fixing
permanently the seat of government in the city of Albany,
and measures were taken for the erection of public build-
ings, for the accommodation of the state officers.

The term of service of Aaron Burr in the senate of the
United States, expired this year, and on the 31st of March,
three days before the adjournment of the legislature, they
elected Gen. Philip Schuyler to that office. This evidence
of continued confidence on the part of his friends, must
have been extremely grateful to his feelings, after he had
been beaten in the manner I have before related, by CoL
Burr. It is evident that the General, appreciated with
great sensibility, this appointment j for, on the occasion,
he delivered a short address to the legislature. His
speech evinced much good feeling, and was, rather unu-
sual for him, conciliatory in manner and matter. He said
he had been forty years in the public service, and had de-
termined to retire to private life when his term in the state
senate should expire, but that the recent appointment and
the manner in which it had been conferred on him, impo-
sed on him an obligation to forego his private inclinations.
He stated that his feelings were ardent in support of his
political principles ; but he declared that he retained no
unkind impressions against those who differed from him
in opinion, in relation to public men or measures, and he
trusted that his opponents entertained corresponding
friendly sentiments towards him. He concluded with an
ardent and patriotic prayer for the preservation of our civil
institutions, and for the prosperity of the state.

Indications began to be exhibited, in various parts of
this state, of jealousy and dissatisfaction respecting the

106 POLITICAL HISTORY

manner in which the national concerns were managed j
particularly in respect to our foreign affairs, and especially
in relation to the French republic. The congressional
election which took place in December, 1796, had termi-
nated more favorable to the republican party than had
been anticipated. Edward Livingston had been re-elected
from New-York ; J. N. Havens from Suffolk j Lucas El-
mendorff from Ulster, and Philip Van Cortland from
Westchester, all republicans, notwithstanding they respec-
tively encountered a zealous opposition from. the fede-
ralists.

In the city of New-York, on the 6th February, 1796, a
grand celebration of the ninth anniversary of the treaty
of alliance between France and America, was held,
attended by many distinguished republican citizens of
New-York, and also by a considerable number of French
citizens. The meeting, it is said, was eloquently addressed
by Brockholts Livingston. The toasts drank on the occa-
sion, may be considered as indicating the feelings of the
company. On the subject of the president and the na-
tional government, they were silent. One of the regular
toasts was, " The British Treaty — May it be an awful
lesson how to trust to the justice and magnanimity of
those who ever have, and still do seek, the ruin of our
commerce, and destruction of our liberty."

The celebrated JVapper Tatidy gave for a toast — " The
virtuous citizens of New-York, who, despite of British in-
fluence, returned their faithful representative to congress."

By Chancellor Livingsto?i — " May the present coolness
between France and America, produce, like the quarrels
of lovers, a renewal of love."

It will be recollected, that Chancellor Livingston, at
the time of the adoption of the constitution, was an ardent
federalist ; and, I now add, that it is very doubtful
whether, without his eloquence and personal influence,

OF NEW-YORK. S J07

the Poughkeepsle convention would have adopted it. He
continued to act with the federalists for some time after-
wards, and was politically opposed to Gov. Clinton
and his party. A little before the period of which I am
now speaking, he and his immediate connexions, known
as the " Livingston family^'' shifted their position, and
took ground in opposition to the state and national admin-
istrations. What were the causes which produced a
change in the politics of the chancellor ? and at what
time did that change take place 1 Being myself unable
to solve these questions, I caused the inquiry to be made
of a neighbor and cotemporary of Mr. Livingston, though
some years his junior, and who for a long time held with
distinguished ability, a high office under the government
of this state. His reply was, " The chancellor changed
in 1790. The ostensible cause was, his opposition to the
views of Mr. Hamilton, as contained in his reports as sec-
retary of the treasury, particularly those in relation to the
funding of the national debt, and in favor of a national
bank. The real cause was supposed to be disappointment
in not being appointed chief justice of the United States."
It is proper to add, that this information is derived from
an ardent friend of Gen. Hamilton, and of course, an op-
ponent of the chancellor. I have since been informed
that the family one evening had a meeting for the pur-
pose of deliberating on the subject, and that the result of
their deliberations was such, that the next morning every
member of it took a position in the ranks of the republican
party. It is, however, to be remarked, that some of the
Livingstons who resided in Columbia county, did not
change with the chancellor, but continued their adherence
to the federal party. Chancellor Livingston w^as one of
the most eloquent men of his day. He possessed talents
highly respectable as a lawyer and statesman, though
perhaps he may have been defective in that intense, per-

108 POLITICAL HISTORY

severing application to study, absolutely necessary in
order to enable the most gifted individual to sustain and
retain a high standing among the legal profession as a
jurist. His manners were said to be exceedingly agreeable
and fascinating. He was, as we have seen, one of the
most efficient agents in procuring the adoption of the
constitution. But in the selection of the great officers of
the general government, the heads of departments, the
supreme judiciary, and foreign embassies, he had been
wholly overlooked. Is it wonderful that he should have
been dissatisfied 1 How is this neglect of the chancellor,
with his shining talents, his fascinating address, and pow-
erful family connexions, to be accounted for '? Was it
owing to the personal jealousy of Gen. Hamilton '? — Be
the cause of that and his political change, what it may, it
is obvious that the accession of the Livingston family to
the republican party, rendered that party far more power-
ful than otherwise it; would have been, and accelerated, if
it did not produce, their triumph over their opponents.

The general election of April, 1797, atforded an evi-
dence that the republican party were gaining ground,
particularly in the southern district. Mr. L'Hommedieu,
who began now to act with the democracy, had been re-
turned as senator from that district;

In the eastern district, Messrs. Van Vechten, Ten Eyck,
Van Schoonhoven and Clark, and in the western, Messrs.
Phelps, Thomas Morris and M. Myers, all federalists were
elected senators.

In New-York, the republican candidates were elected
by more than an average majority of one thousand.
Among the members elected from the city, I find those of
Aaron Burr, Samuel L. Mitchell, (the learned Doctor
Mitchell) and De Witt Clmton. This gentleman, who
afterwards became so distinguished in this state, was the
■son of Gen. James Clinton, and nephew to Gov. George

OF NEW-YORK. 109

Clinton. He was then about 28 years old. He had at
an early age graduated at Columbia College, with high
reputation for his scholastic attainments, and soon after
commenced reading law in the office of Samuel Jones,,
whom I have several times mentioned as one of the most
efficient members of the legislature.

Mr. Clinton did not, however, complete his studies
without some interruption. In consequence of the death of
an elder brother, who was private secretary to the gover-
nor, he was pursuaded to relinquish for a time his legal
studies, and officiate in the office which had become va-
cant by his brother's death. This was in the midst of the
heat of debate on the subject of the adoption of the federal
constitution. He took side in that controversy with his
uncle, the governor, and though young, was one of the
ablest newspaper WTiters in opposition to those who ad-
vocated the adoption of the constitution. When, in 1795,
Mr. Jay was elected governor, Mr. Clinton was relieved
from every public employment, and again resorted to the
study and practice of law in the city of New-York. Al-
though he was distinctly known as a member of the re-
publican party, and an active one, and notwithstanding
he had written and said much against the federal constitu-
tion, yet after that instrument had become the supreme
law of the land he manifested his determination, and
urged his friends to support it in good faith. He also
was far from tolerating or apologizing for the insolent
conduct of the French government towards this country,
or the impertinent and officious intermeddling of Mr. Ge-
net, and other French agents, with our domestic affairs,
and with the opinions of the American people. Hence
some leading federalists in New- York entertained strong
hopes that he would abandon the republican party; and I
have heard it asserted that Gen. Hamilton had expressed
an opinion that Mr. De Witt Clinton would ultimately be

110 POLITICAL HISTORY

identified with the federal party. Nothing material oc
curred during the recess of the legislature.

The legislature elected in April, 1797, met at Albany
on the 2d January, 1798. In the assembly, one hundred
and one members appeared and took their seats, and
Derick Ten Eyck was chosen speaker, against Mr. Wil-
liam Duning, by a vote of fifty-nine to forty-two. This
seemed to have been a clear party vote, and therefore ex-
hibits the strength of the parties during that session in the
assembly. The governor, in his speech, confined himself
to such domestic affairs and regjulations of the state as in
his judgment demanded the attention of the legislature.
His address was judicious, and, as usual, able ; but he
carefully avoided any allusion to the political topics in
controversy between the two parties.

On the 3d of January, the assembly proceeded to
nominate a council of appointment ; and Ezra L'Homme-
dieu, William Thompson, Moses Vail, and Joseph White
were chosen.

In the early part of the session, Mr. Spencer raised a
question whether the incumbent of the office of comptrol-
ler could, with propriety, hold a seat in the senate, by in-
troducing a resolution that the seat of Samuel Jones be
declared vacant, in consequence of his acceptance of the
office of comptroller. This resolution elicited conside-
rable debate, but it was finally negatived by a large ma-
jority.

Gen. Schuyler, by a written communication, asked
and obtained leave to resign his office as senator in the
senate of the United States, and on the 12th of January,
the two houses nominated and appointed John Sloss Ho-
bart, one of the judges of the supreme court, his suc-
cessor.

Judge Hobart soon afterwards addressed a letter of
some length to the legislature. In this communication he

OF NEW-YORK. Ill

states that he was not bred to the profession of law; that
he accepted the office when the supreme court was first
organized, and had held it for twenty years j that the
salary, for a considerable part of the time, had, in conse-
quence of the extreme pecuniary embarrassments of the
state, been insufficient to defray the expenses of his fami-
ly J that with a view of adding to his means of living, he
purchased a farm, for which he was utterly unable to pay;
and in conclusion he states that he accepts the office of
senator in the full confidence that " the legislature of his
own state will not suffer an old servant to drink of the
bitter cup of poverty and distress in the evening of his
life."

It is somewhat remarkable that a man who had not
studied the law as a profession, should have been selected
for a judge of the supreme court. But then, we are to
recollect that he was appointed in 1777, during the most
perilous period of the revolutionary war; that able whig
lawyers were then rarely to be found ; and that probably
patriotism, integrity and sound discretion and judgment
were more sought after, and in fact, in those times more
needed, than high legal attainments.

There are no reports of adjudications of the supreme
court while Judge Hobart sat as one of its members ; but
from a letter written by him to Gov. Jay in 1795, on the
subject of the governor's thanksgiving proclamation, (1
Jay J 386,) it may be inferred that he was a man of wit,
and a scholar.

The fact that Judge Hobart was not bred a lawyer ac-
counts for the appointment of Robert Yates chief justice,
when Hobart was the senior judge.

Shortly after the communication of Judge Hobart to the
legislature, of which I have been speaking, was received,
a motion was made that some pecuniary provisions should
be made for him, and also for the Chief Justice, Yates,

112 POLITICAL HISTORY.

whose term of office was about to expire, but nothing ef-
fectual was done on the subject.

The expiration of the term of office of Chief Justice
Yates,* and the resignation of Judge Hobart produced
two vacancies on the bench of the supreme court.

In the month of February, James Kent, then recorder
of New- York, was appointed to supply one of the vacan-
cies, and John Lansing, Junior, was appointed chief justice;
but no appointment of a fifth judge was made until the
9th of August following, when John Cozine was appoint-
ed. He, however, died within a very short time after his
appointment, and on the 27th December, 1798, Jacob
Radcliff, then assistant attorney general for the counties
of Dutchess, Ulster and Orange, was appointed in place
of the deceased judge.

During this session, Robert McClellan, who afterwards
became a defaulter, was appointed state treasurer.

The office of secretary of state became vacant by the
death of Mr. Scott, and Major Daniel Hale of Albany, was
appointed to that office. This appointment was made
against the wishes of Gov. Jay, and in consequence of the
strenuous effort of Doct. Joseph White, a member of the
council from the western district. Gov. Jay nominated
several persons, who were promptly rejected by the coun-
cil, and at last very reluctantly nominated Mr. Hale.
Mr. Hale, it is said, was an excellent officer, and the go-
vernor soon became convinced that his opposition to the
appointment was caused by erroneous impressions, and

* Chief Justice Yates never afterwards held any office of importance. Although
Uot distinguished as a great man or learned jurist, I have never heard his integ-
rity or impartiality as a judge impeached. In his temper and disposition he was
amiable, and his social qualities rendered him agreeable and interesting to all
classes in community. He was likewise kind and generous. Unhappily these
qualities caused him to be too inattentive to his pecuniary conc€rns,*and he died
poor. Upon his decease, his son, John Van Ness Yates, Esquire, found his estate
insufficient to pay his debts, and afterwards, as I am informed, from his own
earnings, from filial affection and a regard to the memory of his father, very mach
to his own honor, paid all the creditors. Ought the state to have permitted this ?

OF NEW-yORK. 113

when so convinced he lost no time In communicating to
Doct. White and Major Hale his conviction that he was
well satisfied that he was wrong, and that the friends of
Mr. Hale were right.

After the legislature had adjourned, (which was on the
7th April,) Judge Hobart was appointed by the president
a district judge for the district of New-York, and there-
upon (the vacancy in the U. S. senate happening during
the recess of the legislature,) Gov. Jay appointed Gen.
William North of Duanesburgh, to supply the vacancy
in the senate.

The electioneering campaign was opened with great
vigor in the winter of 1798.

On the 6th March, at a very general meeting of the
federal members of the legislature, and citizens from vari-
ous parts of the state, John Jay and Stephen Van Rens-
selaer were nominated for re-election. Chancellor Liv-
ingston was nominated by the republican party in oppo-
sition to Mr. Jay. The republicans made no nomination
for lieutenant governor, but I believTe generally concur-
red in the support of Mr. Van Rensselaer. The great
and well merited personal popularity of the lieutenant
governor, probably induced this course.

Judge Wm. Jay says, (1 Jay, 400,) that "Governor
Jay would gladly have retired from the contest, but the
indignities which France was at that time, heaping
upon this country, and the probability that they would
soon lead to a war, forbade him to consult only his per-
sonal gratification." "No competitor could, probably,
have been selected with whom he would have been more
reluctant to contend, than Chancellor Livingston. An-
cient friendship, and ancient associations, must have
rendered it peculiarly painful to him, to find in his old
companion and fellow laborer, a voluntary rival." The
subsequent conduct of Gov. Jay, renders it extremely

8

114 POLITICAL HISTORY

probable that this opinion of Jutlge Jay, in relation to
the motives and desires of his father, is correct.

Although some of the unpopular measures of the ad-
ministration of Mr. Adams, had been adopted, and had
been met by strong and vigorous opposition by the lead-
ing democrats in this state, as well as in other states of the
Union, particularly the southern, yet sufficient time had
not elapsed to enable the great mass of the yeomanry
of the country to become so well acquainted with the
merits and demerits of the federal administration, as to
prepare them to pronounce a judgement of condemna-
tion ; and the offensive conduct of Genet, and the atti-
tude assumed by the French republic towards the Amer-
ican government, induced a majority of the people of
this state to support, for the present the national admin-
istration, and of course, to sustain the re-election of Gov.
Jay, in the purity of whose motives all men had unlimited
confidence. He was therefore elected by, at that time,
the large majority of two thousand three hundred and
eighty votes.

OF >fEW-YORK. 115

CHAPTER V.

FROM MAY 1, 1798, TO MAY 1, 1801.

Although Gov. Jay had been re-elected by a triumphant
majority, the election evinced that the republican party
was the rising party in the state. In the southern district,
De Witt Clinton and David Gelston were elected to the
senate ; Ambrose Spencer, John Schenck and Ebenezer
Foote,from the middle • Leonard Gansevoort, John Frey
and John Saunders, from the eastern, and William Beeke-
man, Frederick Getman and Thomas R. Gold, from the
western district, were returned members of the senate.
The city of New-York again returned republican members
of the assembly, among whom, were Aaron Burr and
John Swartwout. Washington county also elected demo-
cratic members of the assembly, in despite of the strenuous
exertions of Gen. John Williams, who had changed from
a zealous democrat to a most heated federalist. He was
the federal candidate for congress, from the district com-
posed of Washington, Clinton and Saratoga counties, but
was beaten by Judge Thompson of Saratoga, who was
the republican candidate.

Several gentlemen, who afterwards made a distinguished
figure in the democratic party, this year made their first
appearance in public life, in the assembly. Among them
may be mentioned, David Thomas, of the county of Wash-
ington, Erastus Root, of the county of Delaware, Archi-
bald Mclntyre, of the county of Montgomery, Obadiah
German, of the county of Chenango, and Jedediah Peck,
of the county of Otsego. Mr. Peck had been elected as a
federalist, or rather, strictly speaking, the federal party in
that county could hardly be said at that time, to have had

116 POLITICAL HISTORY

any opposition, but in the course of the session, he gen-
erally acted with the republicans, and finally became iden-
tified with that party.

The year which succeeded the election, in April, 1798,
was one of unusual, perhaps unsurpassed, political excite-
ment in the United States ; but in no state was party heat
more intense than in the state of New-York. All the old
animosities which were generated in 1788, and had been
smothered for ten years, burst forth into a flame. This
excitement was mainly produced by the measures of the
general government. The friends of the administration
of Mr. Adams were openly charged with palpable and al-
most treasonable partiality for the British government,
and wuth attempting by construction to invest the national
government with powers not intended to be conferred on
them by the constitution, and finally to subvert our free
institutions and establish in lieu thereof, if not in name in
spirit, a limited monarchical government similar to that
of Great Britain. These charges may seem to us at this
day, entirely extravagant, and as having originated either
from an over heated disordered imagination, or from a de-
sign to impose on the less informed part of the community
by false representations and unfounded alarms, wuth a
view to accomplish electioneering purposes, and projects
of self aggrandizement. But in my judgement, we should
do injustice to a large portion of the intelligent and best
informed part of the republicans, w^ho led on the attack
upon the federal administration, in arriving at such a con-
clusion. To prove the correctness of this opinion, it will
be necessary slightly to glance at the principles and move-
ments of the two great national parties of that day. It
cannot be denied but that many of the most intelligent of
the federalists, at the time of the adoption of the United
States constitution, believed that a pure representative
government, as contemplated by that instrument, could

OF NEW- YORK. 117

not be sustained by any community on eartb. They
therefore looked for a change to be produced either by
physical force, that is by a revolution, or by gradual and
almost insensible innovations, to be effected by those who
should administer the government ; and the latter course
was, from various and important considerations, to be pre-
ferred. I have no doubt that a large majority of those
men who thus thought and judged were honest in their
opinions. Why should it be otherwise 'i A representative
democracy was entirely novel. The ancient republics
were either real aristocracies or democracies. In the latter
case, the people, instead of acting by their representatives,
acted in masses. Such were some of the ancient Grecian
republics. These communities were, after a short time,
always misled by designing demagogues, and soon lost
their liberties.

In Rome, the government was partly aristocratic and
partly democratic. The democratic branch of the govern-
ment gradually gained ground and encroached on the
aristocratic, until the senate entirely lost its authority and
power. The democracy soon became a prey to the ambi-
tious projects of designing and corrupt demagogues. The
result was, that the Roman people, who were masters of
th6 world, became themselves the slaves of a single despot.
The more recent Italian and Dutch republics, (so called,)
were generally, properly speaking, mere oligarchies ; and
were so distracted by factions, caused by the ambitious
projects of individuals, or created by the corrupt influence
of neighboring and more powerful governments, as to af-
ford a feeble protection to the private rights and personal
liberty of the citizen, and an extremely unsafe and uncer-
tain guaranty of national independence. The government
of nearly all the American states, while colonies, had been
partially created by the hereditary executive and royal
authority of Great Britain. The little colonies of Connec-

118 POLITICAL HISTORY

ticut and Rhode-Island furnished the only instances of the
existence of civil society, for any considerable period of
time, under a representative government, and these were
in fact, in their infancy, and always had acted under the
tutelage of the mother country. It is an old maxim, " that
what has been, will be." Is it then, matter of astonish-
ment, that reflecting men, reading men, and honest men,
should have despaired of effecting that in this country,
which had never been effected in any age or by any coun-
try on this globe 1 I rather wonder that men were found
bold enough to venture on this new experiment, and to
disregard these doubts and apprehensions. Thank God,
there were such men ; among whom Thomas JelTcrson,
Benjamin Franklin, George Clinton, and Samuel Adams,
stand pre-eminent. Thank God, too, that they were sus
tained by the mass of mind in the United States. The
men who were known to have entertained these doubts of
the capacity of man for self-government, stood in the front
ranks, and were the leaders of the federalism of 1798.
General Hamilton had, as we have seen, avowed his prin-
ciples frankly and fully, in the national convention, in
favor of a government which, in effect, would have been
a limited monarchy, and, in his letter to Timothy Picker-
ing, (see page 14,) at a later day, he intimates that he
yielded to the adoption of the constitution because the
prejudices of the people in favor of a republican govern-
ment were so strong that it seemed necessary to " try the
experiment. ^^ Even the pure minded and patriotic John
Jay in his letter to Gen. Washington, dated March 7, 1787,
(1 Jay, 256,) on the subject of the form of government,
which in his judgement ought to be adopted by the Uni-
ted States, says, " Shall we have a King 1 Not in my
opinion, while other experiments remain untried. Might
we not have a governor general limited in his prerog-
ative and duration 1 Might not congress be divided

OF NEW- YORK. 119

into an upper and lower house, the former appointed for
life^ the latter annually. * * * What powers should be
granted to the government so constituted ? is a question
which deserves much thought. I think the more the bet-
ter ; the states retaining only so much as may beriecessary
for domestic purposes, and all their principal officers, civil
and military, being commissioned and removable by the
national government. Let it be remembered that this let-
ter was written to General Washington, the man first in
influence in the nation, and that in his answer- he expressed
no suprise at the propositions made by Mr. Jay.

Is it, then, a matter of surprise that the populace should
have been alarmed when the stamp duty, the very mea-
sure which had induced them to rebel against Great Bri
tain, was fixed upon them by congress 1

I ought to have mentioned that so late as 1798, lead-
ing federalists were in the habit, in their verbal commu-
nications, of declaring their convictions that our democra-
tic institutions could not long subsist.

Is it at all surprising that enlightened and highly intel-
ligent men of the republican party, when they perceived
that Gen. Hamilton and Gov. Jay were the dispensers of
governmental patronage in this state, when they found
that that patronage was almost exclusively bestowed on
those who declared themselves in favor of a strong and
energetic government, as it was called, when the general
goverment had adopted a system of internal taxation which
immensely increased its patronage j when a standing army
in time of peace had been raised; when congress had con-
ferred on the president the power to borrow money, leav-
ing- him unlimited in his discretion as to the rate of interest
to be paid ; when the same authority had vested the presi-
dent with arbitrary control over the persons of aliens, and
when a law had been passed, rendering it highly penal to
speak or write any thing tending to bring odium and con-

120 POLITICAL HISTORY

tempt on the president or upon his administration, or upon
congress, and especially when under this act, they saw a
member of congress confined for four months in a dungeon,
principally for charging Mr. Adams with living in a sump-
tous and princely style j is it, I say, at all surprising that
intelligent and consciencious men should have honestly
entertained serious apprehensions, if not a firm belief that
those men who had all along declared their opinion that
a free representative government could not be sustained,
they being the very men who were supposed to hold a
controling influence in the administration of Mr. Adams,
intended the subversion of our free institutions, and were
taking measures to accomplish that intention 1

While, therefore, I award to the great body, even of
the leading federalists of ninety-eight, honest and pure
motives, I insist that upright and well informed republi-
cans had good reasons to believe, and did sincerely believe
that a gradual subversion of the free principles of the con-
stitution was in progress by those who administered the go-
vernment. Another circumstance which at this time added
unusual bitterness to party controversies was, that unfortu-
nately for the federal party, nearly all the tories of the re-
volution then living, joined them. This view of the mate-
rials of which that party was composed, connected w4th the
sympathy felt by the Americans generally for the French,
produced an impression by no means unnatural, that the
federalists, as a party were unreasonably attached to the
British and desired to renew the connexion in some shape,
that formerly existed between the two countries.

It is easy to perceive, that all these causes acting at one
and the same time in connexion with the ordinary causes
which impel to action political partizans, such as person-
al rivalships, and the keen appetite for power and place,
must have rendered the contest from 1798 to 1800 ardent
to a degree of which we can scarcely form an adequate

OF NEW-VORK. 321

conception. Soon after Governor Jay had taken the oath
of office upon his second election, he issued a proclama-
tion requiring an extraordinary session of the legislature,
in the month of August. They met at Albany in pursu-
ance of this proclamation, and Derick Ten Broeck was cho-
sen speaker.

The result of the mission to France of Messrs. Pinck-
ney, Gerry and Marshal became known in this country in
the early part of the summer of this year, and the vile
attempt made in the French capital under the eye of the
government, and evidently by their secret agents to extort
money from the American people, as the price of a trea-
ty with the French republic, rendered it almost certain in
the view of all well informed men that a war would be
the consequence of these disgraceful practices.

The governor, in his speech at the opening of the ses-
sion, assigned as a cause for the call of the extra session,
the alarming indications of a war with France, founded
principally on the recent disclosures, and the consequent
necessity of immediate preparations for defence, by re-
pairing old and erecting new fortifications, by an efficient
organization of the militia, by replenishing our arsenals
with arms, and warlike munitions, and by providing funds
to defray the expenses of these defensive measures. His
speech was almost solely confined to national affairs, and
tended to inflame the minds of his auditors against the
French, and no doubt was intended by him to produce
that effect.

The answers of the two houses were responsive and
respectful. They adopted some measures for putting the
state in a position of defence, but did not enter into the
ordinary business of state legislation.

It will be recollected that a vacancy in the United
States senate had been created by the resignation of Judge
Hobart, and that Gen. North had been temporarily ap-

122 POLITICAL HISTORY

pointed to that office during the recess. The legislature
therefore proceeded to choose James Watson as the suc-
cessor of Mr. Hobart. John Tayler, afterwards lieuten-
ant governor, was the democratic candidate. In the as-
sembly, Mr. Watson received fifty-seven votes, and Mr.
Tayler forty-eight. This, probably, exhibits the strength
of the parties in that house during the extra session in
1798.

This extra session was adjourned until the 2nd day of
January, 1799, on which day the legislature met at Albany,
and on the 6th of that month, the assembly proceeded to
elect a council of appointment, and Wm. Dunning of the
southern, Ebenezer Foote of the middle, Ebenezer Clark
of the eastern, and John Frey of the western district, were
chosen. Mr. Dunning had forty-nine votes, Mr. Foote
the same number, Mr. Clark had ninety-two votes, and
Mr. Frey ninety-six. The opposition candidates were
Mr. Adison and Mr. Haight, who each had forty-seven
votes. The eastern and western districts were represented
entirely by federal, and the southern by democratic sena-
tors. This accounts for the choice of Mr. Dunning, who
was a republican.

The legislature of Massachusetts had praposed certain
amendments to the United States constitution, increasing
the disability of aliens, which were laid before the New-
York legislature by Gov. Jay. These amendments were
considered as partaking of a party character, and were
freely discussed in the assembly, but were rejected by a
vote of sixty-two to thirty-eight.

On the 7th of February, Mr. John Swartwout from New-
York, introduced into the assembly a resolution for the
appointment of a committee who should be directed to
bring in a bill dividing the state into districts, for the elec-
tion by the people, of presidential electors. This resolu-
tion was afterwards modified on the motion of Judge Peck,

OF NEW-YORK. 123

SO as to require the committee to embrace in the same hill,
a direction that each state senator should be chosen by
single districts, and in that shape the resolution passed,
fifty-five to forty. A bill to that effect was accordingly
brought into the assembly and passed that house, but was
rejected in the senate.

The republican members evidently anticipated that the
election in April, 1800, would result in a federal majority
in the legislature, and they advocated this measure with a
view of securing a part of the electoral college. This
project, therefore, among politicians, assumed entirely a
party aspect. The choice of a council of appointment,
and that of United States senator, had shown a federal
majority in the assembly; how, then, was the result last
mentioned produced*? I am informed by a distinguished
gentleman now living, who was then, though young, an
active and decided republican member of the assembly,
that there were at that time some eight or ten members
who had been chosen as federalists, but who began to
question the doctrines of their party, who, on all merely
personal questions, voted with the federalists, but on ques-
tions involving measures and principles, they on most
occasions voted on the democratic side; of these gentle-
man, Obadiah German, Judge Peck, and Mr. McKinstry,
of Hudson, were the principal. They were, in the lan-
guage of the day, denominated trimmers^ an appellation
which the subsequent conduct of most of them, particu-
larly Gen. German and Judge Peck, did not authorize or
warrant. In the management of these men, the tact and
address of Col. Burr were peculiarly useful. It was,
no doubt, owing to his contrivance, that Judge Peck was
selected to bring in the electoral resolutions. Judge
Peck, although a clearheaded sensible man, was an uned-
ucated emigrant from Connecticut. His appearance was
diminutive and almost disgusting. In religion he was

124 POLITICAL HISTORY

fanatical, but in his political views, he was sincere, perse-
vering and bold; and although meek and humble in his
demeanor, he was by no means destitute of personal am-
bition. He was an itinerant surveyor in the county of
Otsego, then a new and vmcultivated part of the state.
He would survey your farm in the day time, exhort and
pray in your family at night, and talk on politics the rest
part of the time. Perhaps on Sunday, or some evening
in the week, he would preach a sermon in your school
house. No man knew better the political importance of
such a man, in a society organized as the society of the
western counties then was, than Col. Burr, and he spared
no pains to cause Mr. Peck to be identified with the demo-
cratic party. Various anecdotes have been related to me,
which exhibit the care which Col. Burr took to shape
trifling matters in such a way as to act on the mind of
Judge Peck and others, so as to produce the great result
at which he aimed. The selection of Judge Peck to offer
the electoral resolutions flattered his vanity, it called out
upon him the maledictions of leading federalists, and in that
way widened the breach between him and his old political
friends. Mr. B., it is said, with equal skill and perseve-
rance applied himself to Gen. German, then a plain, but
stiong minded, and highly popular farmer of Chenango.
The support of the democratic cause by these two men,
was eventually of great importance to the success of the
republican party in April, 1800. I do not think it too
much to say, that had it not been for the papers circula-
ted by Judge Peck and Gen. German, and their personal
exertion and influence, the western district in the year
1800, would have been federal. Mr. Cheetham therefore,
in his pamphlet, which he wrote some years afterwards,
professing to present a " view " of Mr. Burr's political
conduct, and in his answer to Aristides is wrong in alleg-
ing that Col. Burr, while a member of the assembly in

OF NEW-YORK. 125

1798-9j did not act efficiently in support of the republi-
can interest. He probably effected more than any other
individual.

The celebrated resolutions, drawn by Mr. Madison, of
Kentucky and Virginia, denouncing the alien and sedition
laws, and other measures of Mr. Adams were, by Gov.
Jay communicated to our legislature. When the assem
bly was in committee of the whole on these resolutions,
Mr. King, a federalist, moved a resolution reciting that
the right of deciding on the constitutionality of all
laws belongs to the judiciary department, that the
assumption of that right by the individual states, is
unwarrantable, and tends to destroy the independence
of the general government, &c. — He therefore, for this
extraordinary reason, moved that the committee of the
whole be discharged from the further consideration of the
subject. At this day the doctrine that members of a
state legislature had not, constitutionally, the right to ex-
press their opinion on the acts of the general government
would be regarded as too absurd to be advocated by a
man of sane mind ; but although the resolution of Mr.
King was ably and strenuously resisted by Mr. Root and
others, it was finally adopted by a vote of fifty to forty-
three.

In the senate, the same proceedings were had in sub-
stance, and Mr. King's resolution, together with the pre-
amble was adopted by a large majority, there being only
seven votes against it. These were Adison, Dunning,
L'Hommedieu, J. Schenck, Spencer, Tappan, and Tillot-
son. De Witt Clinton, who was then a member of the
senate, must have been necesarily absent. It will be
seen that Judge Spencer, who so lately had been an ardent
friend of Gov. Jay, and a most zealous federalist, is now
found voting with the republican party. The fact is, he
changed sides in the latter part of the session of 1798^

126 POLITICAL HISTORY

and not long after Mr. Jones was appointed comptroller
It is said he was a candidate for that office. Hence, the
federalists charged him with abandoning his party in conse-
quence of disappointment, and from feelings of resent-
ment towards Gov. Jay. The truth of this allegation,
Judge Spencer has always denied, and has uniformly
treated the accusation as a calumny. His change of prin-
ciples was known in the spring of 1798, and before his
re-election to the senate from the middle district.

When the president of the United States was inform-
ed of the treatment by the French directory, of Messrs.
Pinckney, Marshal and Gerry, he, in a speech to congress,
declared that he never would send another minister to
France until he had assurance that an American envoy
would be received with the respect due to a great, free
and independent nation. But not long afterwards, Mr.
Adams having been advised by Mr. Vans Murray, our
minister at the Hague, that representations had been made
to him'by some of the French diplomatic agents, that
France was still desirous to treat with America; not-
withstanding his former delaration, he (Mr. Adams) nomi-
nated to the United States senate, Mr. Vans Murray, as
the American envoy to the French court. This step was
severely censured by Gen. Hamilton, and many other
leading federalists in the nation, some of whom probably
really desired a war with France. Mr. Swartwout, how-
ever, moved in the assembly, an address of thanks to the
president, on account of the appointment of Vans Mur-
ray, but the motion was not sustained by a majority in
the assembly. The result of this motion, shews the very
great influence which the opinions of Gen. Hamilton had
on his political friends in the legislature. It seems to me
as a question of mere party policy, the federalists on this
occasion acted unwisely. They should, themselves, have
brought forward the motion made by Mr. Swartwout.

OF NEW-YORK. 157

The tendency of it would have been to have increased the
confidence of the people in Mr. Adams, the head of the
federal party, and in his administration, but what was of
still greater importance, it would have diminished the
jealousy felt by many honest, upright men, that the fede-
ralists from an overweening partiality for Great Britain,
were determined on a war with France without regarding
the question whether there was or was not a sufficient
cause for such war.

Judge Jay, in his biography of the governor, says (1
Jay 392) that " during the six years of Gov. Jay's admin-
istration, not one individual was dismissed by him from of-
fice on account of his politics. So long as an officer dis-
charged his duties with fidelity and ability, he was certain
of being continued, and hence his devotion to the public,
became identified with his personal interest." It is related
that in the council, a member was urging in behalf of a
candidate, his zeal and usefulness as a federalist, when he
was interrupted by the governor, with " that, sir, is not
the question; is he fit for the ofiice 1"

These sentiments and principles of action are truly no-
ble, and in conformity with the pure motives which always
governed the conduct of John Jay. But Judge Jay was
mistaken in saying that no person was removed on account
of his politics, during Gov. Jay's administration. I find
on the minutes of the council, that Jacob John Lansing
was removed from the office of sheriff of New-York,
Dec. 28, 1798, and James Morris was appointed to succeed
him; also, that on the 9th of March, 1799, Jedediah Peck
was removed from the office of a judge of the common
pleas court of Otsego county, without any cause of the
removal appearing on the minutes. These are the first
cases I have been able to find since the year 1777, of re-
movalsj unless the cause of the removal was inserted on
the minutes. The accusation was in the first place en-

128 POLITICAL HISTORY

tered, and a copy was served on the party accused. In
most cases the incumbent appeared in person before the
council, and made his defence. The council then either
dismissed the complaint, or removed the officer, as they
thought right; but in the case of Mr. Lansing and Judge
Peck, no such proceedings were had.

I presume mal-conduct -was charged against both
those gentlemen, and I cannot believe that at that day the
council would have removed the sheriff of New-York, so
near the end of his term, without special and good cause,
though that cause does not, as it ought, according to for-
mer practice, appear on the council books. In the case
of Judge Peck, too, no doubt, complaints of misconduct
were made against him by such heated politicians as Judge
Cooper and his immediate friends; but that Jedediah Peck
was guilty of official mal-conduct, I do not believe ; and if
his removal was attempted to be put on that ground, that
circumstance probably added to the unpopularity of the
measure. His re-election as a member of the assembly,
by a triumphant majority, in less than sixty days after his
removal, affords evidence of the judgment his neighbors
formed of his conduct. In justice to Gov. Jay, it is proper
to add, that according to the practice then existing, a re-
moval from office might be made, against the wishes of
the governor, on the motion of any member of the council,
although an appointment could not be effected, according
to Gov. Jay's construction of the constitution, without his
consent, or rather without his nomination.

A bill for the gradual abolition of slavery, passed the
assembly during this session, but was lost in the senate.

Before the adjournment of the legislature. Judge Peck
introduced into the assembly a bill abolishing imprison-
ment for all debts arising on contract, express or implied,
which, when called up, was rejected without a division.
I mention this circumstance as evidence of the great

OF NEW- YORK. 129

change which the public mind has undergone since the
close of the eighteenth century, in relation to this import-
ant question, and as creditable to the benevolent feelings
and native sagacity of Jedediah Peck. We shall pre-
sently see him, if not the projector, at least the perse-
verino; and efficient advocate of another o-reat measure — a
measure on the success of which depends the preservation
of the freedom and civil institutions of this country; I mean
the Common School System. The act for " supplying the
city of New-York with pure and wholesome water," or in
other words, the bill chartering the Manhattan Bank,
passed a few days before the adjournment of the legisla-
ture. The scheme of chartering this company was formed
and mainly executed by Col. Burr. The bill was so
drawn as to enable Col. Burr and his republican friends to
get the control of a majority of the stock, and of course,
of the funds of the company. It is an admitted fact, that
a large majority of the legislature at the time they granted
this charter, did not know that it contained a grant of
banking powers. I shall take another occasion to remark
on these proceedings, as w^ell as those relating to the in-
corporation of the New-York State Bank at Albany, in
the year 1802, when I come to the time when the Bank
of America was chartered. As that event resulted in a new
organization of parties, the subject of procuring bank
charters will then be fully considered.

The election in April, 1799, terminated more unfavorably
to the republicans than had been anticipated. New-York,
which for the two preceding years had elected republicans,
this year elected federalists by the large majority of about
nine hundred. Col. Burr was placed at the head of the
republican ticket, and previous to the election, the secret
was out, that the charter to the Manhattan company con-
tained a clause that vested them with banking powers.

It was alleged, (and truly alleged,) that a very large

9

130 POLITICAL HISTORY

majority of the legislature had been cheated, for that
while they believed they were simply providing the means
of supplying the city with pure and wholesome water, they
had created a bank which was to be managed as a great
party machine, and which was to minister to the personal
and ambitious projects of Col. Burr. A very inflammatory
pamphlet was written and generally circulated before the
election, presenting in bold relief these and other views
to the New-York public. The democratic newspapers of
the day, charged the loss of the election in New-York to
these efforts, and it is very probable that they had a pro-
digious and perhaps controlling effect on the result of the
election. In Columbia county, too, where the republicans
expected success, the federalists elected their ticket j but,
in the eastern and western districts there was considerable
republican gain. In Otsego county. Judge Peck was re-
elected, notwithstanding the vigorous opposition made
against him by Judge Cooper and other active and influen
tial federalists.

In the southern district, in consequence of the large
majority in the city of New-York, Messrs. Hatfield and
Coles, the two federal candidates, were elected. In the
middle district, the republicans were more fortunate and
succeeded in electing Isaac Bloom of Dutchess, John
Hathorn of Orange, and John Sulfern of Rockland.
Zina Hitchcock, Ebenezer Russell, and Moses Vail, were
re-elected from the eastern, and Moss Kent and Vincent
Matthews were elected from the western district. These
gentlemen were all federalists. During the summer which
succeeded the election of April, 1799, several very vexa-
tious prosecutions were instituted for a breach of the se-
dition law. Among others, Mr. Charles Holt, printer of
the Bee at New London, was prosecuted and imprisoned.
A Mr. Baldwin of New-Jersey, was also indicted, tried,
convicted, and fined, under color of the sedition law, for

OF NEW-YORK. 131

the following offence: — Mr. Adams, on his return from the
seat of governmentj passed through Newark ; some can-
non were discharged in compliment to him, while passing
through that village j Mr. Baldwin, who it would appear,
was rather a low h-red man, said he wished the wadding
discharged from the cannon had been lodged in the presi-
dent's backsides. For this he was fined one hundred dol
lars. The federalists of New-York, having triumphantly
succeeded in the late election, and all branches both of
the state and national government being with them, should
have endeavored to quiet and soothe the feelings and miti-
gate the jealousies of their opponents. Buonaparte's
maxim was, that the proper time for making overtures of
peace was after a victory. It was a wise and sound max-
im, and is equally applicable to political parties. Then
was the time for the federalists of New-York to have acted
with magnanimity and kindness towards those political
enemies over whom they had so recently obtained a victory.
But their conduct was directly the reverse. They mani-
fested a vindictive and persecuting-^ spirit towards their
opponents. I shall mention only one instance. Gen.
John Armstrong, though he was not then known as the
author, had written with his usual ability and in his usual
unequalled styie of bitterness and severity, a petition to
congress for the repeal of the alien and sedition laws.
Copies of this petition were sent into the various counties
in the state, ostensibly for the purpose of procuring signa-
tures, but no doubt, really with the view of keeping the
odious features of these laws before the people and con-
tinuing and increasing the agitation of the public mind.
Some copies of these petitions were sent to Judge Peck of
Otsego county, and he offered them for signature to his
neighbors. For this offence. Judge Cooper wrote to Mr.
Harrison, then United States district attorney, insisting
that a prosecution, under color of the sedition law, should

132 POLITICAL HISTORY

be instituted against Mr. Peck. 'My. Harrison was impru-
dent enough to listen to these complaints, and a grand jury
of the district of New-York was empannelled who were
weak enough to find a bill of indictment for this alleged
offence. A bench warrant was issued and Judge Peck
was taken from his family by tin officer, to the city of
New-York. A hundred missionaries in the cause of de-
mocracy, stationed between New- York and Cooperstown,
could not have done so much for the republican cause as
this journey of Judge Peck, as a prisoner, from Otsego to
the capital of the state. It was nothing less than the
public exhibition of a suffering martyr for the freedom of
speech and the press, and the right of petitioning, to the
view of the citizens of the various places through which
the marshal travelled with his prisoner. Strange infatua-
tion ! But thus it is ; parties always have been and
always will be hurried into measures which result in their
own overthrow, by the indiscreet zeal, or the malignant
spirit of personal revenge, of their own friends.

On the 9th day of December, died General George
Washington. Independent of the loss which the country
in general sustained by the decease of this great and good
man, his death was to the federalists as a party ^ at this
particular juncture, an irreparable loss. Gen. Washington
■was known to be a supporter of the administration of Mr.
Adams. He had accepted of the command of the provi-
sional army, raised by a recent law of congress, and al-
though that law was peculiarly offensive to the republican
party, so great and so universal was the confidence in Gen.
Washington, that it was difficult to convince the people
that any measure sanctioned by him could be dangerous,
or that an administration which received his approbation
could be unworthy of their support. But, upon his death,
the name of Gen. Washington could no longer be thrown

OK NEW- YORK. 133

into the scales in balancing the merits of any future mea-
sure which might be adopted by the administration.

The legislature met at Albany on the 28th day of Janu-
ary, 1800. Derick Ten Broeck was re-elected speaker
without opposition.

The governor, in the introductory part of his speech,
pronounced a short but elegant eulogy on Gen. Washing-
ton. In the residue of his remarks he avoided touching
on any party questions, and confined himself to the recom-
mendation of several very salutary and judicious amend-
ments of the laws. He concluded by urging further pro-
visions for the support of common schools.

On the 5th February ,the assembly elected Samuel Haight
from the southern, Robert Sands from the middle, James
Gordon from the eastern, and Thomas R. Gold from the
western district, members of the council of appointment
for the year ensuing.

The legislature, in the early part of this session, reduced
the salary of the comptroller from three thousand dollars
to two thousand five hundred,whereupon Mr. Jones declined
a re-appointment, (the comptroller, by the original law, was
appointed annually,) and on the 12th March, John V.
Henry, of Albany, since well known as an eminent law-
yer, who was then a member of the assembly, was ap-
pointed to that office.

On the same day, (12th March,) a debate arose in the
assembly on a bill brought in by Judge Peck, to divide the
state into districts, and for the choice of presidential elec-
tors by the people. This was opposed by the federalists,
principally on the ground that it was unconstitutional.
The constitution of the United States declares, " That each
state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature
thereof shall direct, such number of electors," &c. It was
contended that the direction that "each ,s^a/e shall appoint,"
implied that the state should act as a body corporate, and

134 POLITICAL HISTORY

therefore, that the electors could not be appointed by the
people. The debate, on the part of the federalists, was
principally conducted by Mr. John V. Henry. The spea-
kers on the other side, were Mr. Peck, Mr. Comstock of
Saratoga, and Mr. Thomas of Washington. The bill was
finally rejected, on the motion of Mr. Shurtleflf of Sche-
nectady, by a vote of fifty-five to forty-seven.

Mr. Watson resigned his seat in the senate of the Uni-
ted States, and Governeur Morris was chosen in his
place, on the 3d day of April. Peter Gansevoort of
Albany, was the opposing candidate. In the senate, Mr.
Morris received twenty-five votes, and Mr. Gansevoort
eleven. In the assembly the vote stood fifty-four to forty-
eight.

The legislature adjourned on the Sth April, to the first
Tuesday of November.

The result of the election in April, ISOO, afforded a com-
plete triumph to the democratic party in the state, and we
may add, also, in the nation. This extraordinory success
disappointed and surprised both federalists and republicans.
The city of New-York, although the year before it had
given a federal majority of nine hundred, this year elected
republican members. The republicans succeeded in three
out of the four senatorial districts, which reduced the fede-
ral majority in the senate to seven, while in the assembly
that party obtained a majority of twenty-eight. By this
means the election of electors in favor of Mr. Jefferson
was rendered certain, and his election to the presidency
was equally certain. The eastern district was the only
district which returned federal senators. From that dis-
trict, James Gordon and Stephen Fink were chosen; from
the southern, Wm. Dunning, Jonathan Purdy and Benja.
Hunting; from the middle, David Van Ness, Solomon
Sutherland, John C, Hogeboom, Jacobus S. Bruyn and
James W. Wilkin and from the western, Robert Rose-

OF NEW-YORK. J35

boom and Jedediah Sanger, were elected. Mr. Sanger
afterwards acted with the federalists.* Out of the ten
congressional districts, six republicans were chosen.

The democratic success in the western district, which
was entirely unexpected, was, I have no doubt, produced
by the violent proceedings caused by the over zealous
federalists, particularly by the oppressive and tyrannical
manner in which the sedition law was executed.

In the city of New- York it is probable that in 1799
many republicans voted the federal ticket in consequence
of their dissatisfaction with the manner in which the law
granting banking powers to the Manhattan company had
been smuggled through the legislature, and for the rea-
son that CoL Burr, who was confessedly the contriver and
the agent who effected that extraordinary measure, was
then a candidate. But another very efficient cause of
the democratic success in 1800 in that city was, the ex-
ceedingly judicious selection of candidates. Col. Burr
was not himself a city candidate. This circumstance pre-
vented the Manhattan question from prejudicing the elec-
tion. Besides the bank was then in operation, and in-
stead of being an object to be dreaded and represented as
odious, it then had the power of conferring favors, and
was an object to be courted by all those whose situation or
business required pecuniary aid. The most consummate
prudence and skill were exercised in the selection of
candidates. The republican ticket contained thirteen
men, whose wealth, and talents and weight of charac-
ter were probably greater than any other equal number
of republicans then to be found in the city, or perhaps
any other equal number of citizens. But this was not
all. At that time some degree of rivalry existed be-
tween the Livingstons, and Clintons, and great jealousy
and suspicion were entertained between both the Living-
stons and Clintons and Col. Burr. Each had their warm

* He was probably nominated bj the Federalists.

136 POLITICAL HISTORY

personal friendsj and those friends partook more or loss of
the feelings and prejudices of their leaders. A set of
candidates therefore who were apparently particularly
friendly to either of these leaders would have been coldly
supported by the others. With a view to render these
jealousies and collisions innoxious, and to bring the whole
democratic party heartily into action, Gov. Clinton was
placed at the head of the ticket, Brockholst Livingston,
the most talented member of the Livingston family, was
also made a candidate, and to prevent any dissatisfaction
on the part of the friends of Col. Burr, Mr. John Swart-
wout, known to be his confidential friend was nominated
and Mr. Burr himself was nominated and elected from the
county of Orange. In order to call out the revolutionary
feelings and sympathies of the electors, Gen. Horatio
Gates was also placed on the ticket. John Broome, af-
terwards lieutenant governor, Henry Rutgers, Samuel
Osgood, and sundry other eminent citizens of great weight
of character and personal popularity, were likewise put in
nomination. To the address and skill, and indefatigable
perseverance of Col. Burr, this selection of candidates is
in a great measure owing. Mr. Cheetham, in his view
of the political conduct of Col. Burr, and in his reply to
Aristides, is, it appears to me, uncandid in denying to Mr,
B. the credit of being the principal agent in effecting this
arrangement. The large federtd majority which had been
obtained by the federalists the preceding year, induced
many leading republicans to believe and declare to their
friends that all efforts would be vain; Col. Burr, on the
other hand, persisted in affirming that success was certain
if arrangements could be made which would bring to the
polls, the whole force of the democratic party; and it was
his plastic hand which formed this excellent ticket. It
was, in a great measure, his ardent persuasions which in-
duced some of the candidates to permit their names to be

OF NEW-YORK. 137

used. The arrangement was not finally consummated
until a few evenings before the election, when it was ef-
fected at an interview between Gov. Clinton and Col.
Burr and four or five other friends, at the house of Mr.
Gelston, in the city of New-York.

Smith TiiOiMPSON made his first appearance in public life
this year, as a member of the assembly from the county
of Dutchess.

Before I enter upon the history of the November ses-
sion of the legislature, I shall endeavor to give some ac-
count of the conduct and movements of two distinguished
New-York politicians, in respect to the coming presiden-
tial election. The gentlemen to whom I allude are Aaron
Burr and Alexander Hamilton. In tracing their course, I
shall necessarily be carried beyond the first meeting of the
legislature, and into the winter of the year 1801; but I
think this method will enable the reader to get a more
distinct view of the political operations of that year, than
by confining myself to a strict chronological order of
events. «

Congress was in session when the result of the New-
York election was made public. As soon as this event
•was known, and it was consequently ascertained that a
republican president and vice-president could be elected,
it became necessary to settle on a candidate for the vice-
presidencyj all being agreed that Mr. Jefferson should be
the presidential candidate. In the month of May, an
informal caucus was held by the republican members of
congress at Philadelphia, to deliberate on that question.
At this conference it was agreed that the vice-president
should be taken from New-York, and Chancellor Living-
ston, Gov. Clinton, and Mr. Burr were mentioned. The
members who composed this conference not knowing the
wishes of the majority of their democratic friends in New-
York, requested Mr. Gallatin to communicate with them

138 POLITICAL HISTORY

and ascertain their views. Mr. Gallatin, in pursuance of
this request, wrote to Commodore Nickolson of New-York,
and requested him to converse frankly and freely with the
gentlemen who had been named as candidates, and to
consult other friends and inform him, (Mr. G.,) of the
result of his enquiries.

Com. Nickolson soon found that the deafness of Chan-
cellor Livingston presented an insuperable barrier to his
nomination. He then called on Gov. Clinton, who, at
first, strenuously objected to the nomination, alleging as
a reason his advanced age, impaired health, and the situa-
tion of his family. Com. Nickolson represented that their
political friends might think that the success of the demo-
cratic party would be endangered by his declension, upon
which, Mr. Clinton said, that if his name should be deemed
absolutely necessary to ensure success to the republicans,
he would consent to the nomination, on the express condi-
tion that he should be at liberty to resign, if he found his
health and circumstances rendered retirement from public
employment necessary. The friends of Gov. Clinton
allege, that upon this, Mr. Nickolson concluded to recom-
mend to the Philadelphia caucus, the selection of Gov.
Clinton, and actually wrote a letter to that effect; but that
he went from Gov. Clinton's to Col. Burr's, and showed
him the letter he had written; that Mr. B. w^as dissatisfied
and after some consultation with him and his friends, Mr.
Nickolson erased the name of Mr. Clinton and inserted
that of Col. Burr. (Cheetharri's Reply to Aristides, p. 52
to 57.) What the true version of this transaction was, it
is impossible, at this day, to ascertain with certainty. To
me, it seems probable, from the spirit of rivalry existing be-
tween Gov.^ Clinton and Col. Burr, from the tenor of Mr.
C's. communication to the commodore, and from his
subsequent conduct in suffering himself to be a candidate
for the office of governor and afterwards that of vice-pre-

or NEw-vouK. 139

sldent, he really desired to be a candidate, in preference
to Col. Burr. On the other hand, it is probable as Mr.
B. had, while in the United States senate, formed an
acquaintance and friendship with many of the southern
politicians, as he had, at the election in 1797, received
thirty of the southern votes for the office of vice-president,
and as his friends and agents were very active in his favor,
that a majority of the members of congress were really
desirous of his nomination, and that Commodore Nickolson
was apprised of this fact. In this way I account for his
conduct in so readily giving up Gov. Clinton, and recom-
mending Col. Burr.

On the arrival of the commodore's letter at Pbiladelphia,
Col. Burr was nominated for vice-president at a congres-
sional caucus. If Mr. Clinton was dissatisfied with this
nomination, or the manner in which it was effected, he had
too much discretion to manifest his disapprobation. On
the contrary, as a member of the legislature and on all
occasions, he supported with good faith the election of Mr.
Jefferson and Mr. Burr.

Upon canvassing the presidential votes, it was found
that Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Burr had each of them received
seventy-three votes. The whole number of votes were
one hundred and thirty-eight, leaving for Mr. Adams and
Mr. Pinckney sixty-five votes each.* This result produced
a convulsion, which imminently threatened a dissolution of
the government. The number of votes given to Mr. Jef-
ferson and Mr. Burr being equal, there was of course, no
election by the electors, and the election of president de-
volved on the states as represented in the house of repre-
sentatives of the United States. There were then sixteen
states. Eight of them were republican, six were federal,
and two were equally divided. It was necessary that a
majority of the states should cast their votes for one
person, in order to effect an election. In this situation of

* This is aa error— Mr. P. received in one of the eastern slutes two votes less
than Adams.

140 POLITICAL inSTOUY

affiiirs, ]\Tr. Burr was charged with an attempt, by intrigue
and management, to cause himself to be elected president,
in preference to Mr. Jefferson. It was this charge,
'' which was the weight that pulled him dow^n " from the
pinnacle of power to which he seemed rising, and which,
as a politician, prostrated him forever.

It is not my intention to examine or recapitulate in detail
the facts urged in support of this charge, or the argu-
ments and facts presented by the friends of Col. Burr in
his defence. There are, however, two circumstances
about which there can be no doubt, which notwithstanding
the letter of Col. Burr to Gen. Smith of Maryland, written
before the result of the canvass was known,* produce in
my mind a strong conviction that he did seek the presi-
dency, in opposition to Mr. Jefferson.

In the state of Pennsylvania a majority of the assembly
was democratic, but the senate was federal. It was for
some time doubtful what would be the political character
of the electors of that state, and indeed, whether any elec
tors at all would be chosen; for the senate afforded some
indications that they would not meet the assembly for the
purpose of going into a joint ballot. The electors, it will
be recollected, were then chosen in that state by the legis-
lature. Again, it was uncertain whether the state of
South Carolina would elect federal or republican electors,
and the electors in that state were not to be chosen until
the second day of December, only two days before the
votes for president and vice-president were to be given.

It was ascertained that if Pennsylvania elected a full
college of republican electors, a republican president
would be chosen, whether South Carolina voted for him
or not. The electors from New- Jersey had been appointed,
and they were federalists. Those who held that Col.

* In this letter Mr. Burr affects to decline a competition with Mr. JefiersoB.

OF NEW- YORK. 141

Burr had intrigued for the presidency, alleged that he
had agreed with the federal electors of New-Jersey, that
in case Pennsylvania should elect republican electors, and
thus insure the defeat of Mr. Adams, they should cast
their vote for Mr. Burr, leaving off Mr. Jefferson. Mr.
Cheetham, in his view of the political conduc* of Aaron
Burr, published in 1802, (p. 44,) charges, that after the
election, Jonathan Dayton, who was speaker of the
house of representatives, and a distinguished federal leader
in New- Jersey, publicly d(-clared that such was the ar-
rangement and agreement. The celebrated pamphlet of
Aristides, written by Judge Wm. P. Van Ness, in answer
to Cheetham's " mt'io," does not contradict this statement.
The subsequent intimacy between Mr. Dayton and Mr.
Burr, which resulted in the ruin of the former, goes still
further to confirm this statement. The arrangement, if
one was made, was not carried into effect, for the two
houses of the Pennsylvania legislature finally compromised
their differences, and the result was that the republicans-
had but one majority in the electoral college of that state.

Was this agreement of the New-Jersey federalists tO"
vote for Col. Burr unknown to him 1 I cannot believe
that it was.

The other circumstance to which I shall call the atten-
tion of the reader, is, that after the electoral vote was-
known, and before the action of the house of representa-
tives, in the winter of 1801, Col. Burr went to Albany to-
attend the legislature as a member, and took with him
William P. Van Ness, one of the most shrewd and
sagacious men which this state ever produced. He was
Mr. B's most confidential friend. Mr. V. N., before the
election in the house of representatives, wrote to Edward
Livingston, a member of that house, advising him that it
" was the sense of the republican party of this state, that
after some trials in the house Mr. Jefferson should be givea

142 POLITICA^i HISTORY

Lip for Mr. Burr." This, by the bye, was notoriously
untrue. Other letters were written to the same effect.
This charge is made in Cheetnam's " meiy," &c., which
was ariijwered by Mr. Van Ness, as I have before stated,
in the pamphlet to which he affixed the signature of Ari-
stides. In that pamphlet he does not deny that he wrote
the letter, and suck a letter j to Mr. Livingston. Can any
man doubt tl)at that letter was written with the know-
ledge and approbation of Col. Burr 1 Assurances were
given by the friends of Mr. B., that after several ballot-
ings the states of New-York, Tennessee, and perhaps
New-Jersey, would go for Col. Burr. When the house
of representatives commenced the business of president
making on the 11th of February, a dreadful scene was
opened. Thirty-six ballotings were had. The balloting
continued four days and four nights, and finally terminated
in the choice of Mr. Jefferson. The friends of Mr. Burr
charged Mr. Jefferson with purchasing, by a promise of
office, some of those members of congress who, it was
supposed, had intended to vote for Mr. B., and in fulfil-
ment of these engagements, it is alleged that Mr. Linn
was appointed supervisor of the revenue of New-Jersey,
Mr. Livingston district attorney of New-York, Gen. Bailey
post-master at the city of New-York, and Mr. Clairborne
of Tennessee, governor of the territory of Missisippi.

The conduct of Col. Burr was as impolitic as it was
faithless to his party. He remained at Albany during the
whole winter. He shrouded himself in mystery. His
scheme undoubtedly was, to suffer the federalists and a
few republicans to elect him, without appearing himself
to take part in the election and without any special com-
mitments. If Mr. Jefferson should be chosen, he supposed
by this mysterious course of action, or rather no apparent
action, he could still retain his standing with the republi-
can party. If, on the contrary, he should be the success-

OF NEW- YORK. 143

fal candidate, he imagined that the power and patronage
conferred by the office would enable him to sustain himself
and to form a party out of the wreck of the two parties,
which would constitute a majority in the nation. This
course of conduct was weak as well as wicked. There
are times when it may be discreet for a politician to tempo-
rize; but there are also times when a temporizing policy
is the most injudicious policy which can be pursued.
The present was, with Col. Burr, a time for action, and
not for halting and hesitating. Although, as an honorable
member of the republican party, he could not with pro-
priety enter the list against Mr. Jefferson, there was no
treason in doing soj and had he done so openly, a
large and respectable portion of community would have
sustained him. He would, in the then excited state of
party feeling, at any rate by taking this course, probably
have succeeded; and success in politics, as in war, too
generally in public estimation, sanctifies the means by
which it is procured. That Col. Burr, if he had pursued
this line of conduct, would have received the support of
the federalits and would ultimately have been elected, is
rendered probable by a letter written by Judge Cooper,
then a member of the house of representatives, from this
state, to Thomas Morris, on the last day of balloting, in
which he says, " Had Burr done any thing for himself, he
would long ere this have been president," (2 Davis, 116.)
Judge Cooper was an uneducated man, but very few knew
men better than he. Mr. Burr, therefore, in my judgment,
ought either frankly and openly to have declared himself
a candidate in opposition to Mr. Jeflferson, and manifested
a readiness to make a common cause with his friends; or
he should have repaired in person to the seat of govern-
ment and requested his friends to support Mr. Jefferson.
He should have publicly and unequivocally declared he
would not accept of an election made in the way his

144 , POLITICAL HISTORY

election, if effected at all, must have been made, and the
latter was, beyond question, the path of duty as well as
that of honor. While he was himself vaguely intimating
that he did not wish to enter into competition with Mr.
Jefferson, his friends were urging republican members of
congress to abandon Mr. Jefferson and support Burr. He
balanced — he hesitated — he equivocated. In reviewing
his conduct on this occasion, one cannot help being re-
minded of the ludicrous description given by Casca of
Caesar's refusal to accept a crown : — " I saw Mark An-
thony offer him a crown, * * * And as I told you, he put
it by once, but for all that, to my thinking, he would fain
have had it. Then he offered it to him again, then he put
it by again; but to my thinking he was very loath to lay
his fingers off it."

The high character of Gen. Hamilton, his acknowledged
transcendency of talents and commanding influence with
the federalists in this state and nation, render his conduct
in relation to the presidential election in 1800, worthy of
particular attention.

Immediately after the result of the state election was
known, and on the seventh day of May, Gen. Hamilton,
with the approbation, as is said, of a caucus of his political
friends in New-York, addressed a letter to Gov. Jay,
requesting and urging him forthwith to call the then exist-
ing legislature together, with a view that before the legis-
lative year expired, (and it will be remembered that under
the old constitution it expired on the first of July,) they
should pass an act dividing the state into districts for the
choice of presidential electors by the people. It was
supposed, and the event proved the supposition well
founded, that Mr. Jefferson could not get, including the
twelve New- York votes, more than 73 votes, and seventy
votes were necessary to a choice. If, therefore, four fed-
eral votes could be obtained in this state, (and that there

OF NEW-YORK. 145

could J if the state was divided into dlstrictSj did not admit
of any doubt,) the election of Jeilerson would be defeated.
Mr. Hamilton J in his letter, uses this extraordinary lan-
guage, " Youj sir, know in a great degree the anti*federal
party, but I fear you do not know them as well as I do.
'Tis a composition indeed of very incongruous materials,
but all tending to mischief ; some of them to the over-
throw of the government by stripping it of its due ener-
gies," [Jeifersoniansj] " others of them," [Burr,] a revo-
lution after the manner of Buonaparte. " I speak from
indubitable facts, not from conjecture and inferences."
How Gen. Hamilton could feel authorized to make these
bold, and as all will now admit, unwarrantable assertions,
to such a man as Gov. Jay, it is difficult to conceive. He
concluded by urging the governor to make the call as the
only remaining means of saving the nation.

At the time Mr. Hamilton made this recommendation
to Gov. Jay, he must have known that a proposition in-
Tolvlng this very scheme, had been made in the assembly
by Mr. Swartwout and Judge Peck a few months before,
and in that body had been rejected by the united votes of
the federalists. He must have known that that able law-
yer, and honest and honorable man, John V. Henry,
had opposed it mainly on the ground that it was unconsti-
tutional. Had the constitution changed, or was Mr« Henry
and the whole federal party in the assembly to change at
the bidding of Gen. Hamilton 1 John Jay, the pure, the
honest, the patriotic John Jay, who at th4t moment was
as zealous a federalist as the United States contained, to
his immortal honor, refused to yield to this pressing soli-
citation. On the bask of that letter will now be found
the following endorsement. " Proposing a measure for
party purposes j which I think it would not become me to
adopt.'''' In the history of man, amidst his follies, his

vices, and his crimes, there are now and then green spots

10

146 POLITICAL HISTORY

on which the mind delights to dwell, and this is one of
them. This demonstration of virtue and high integrity,
ought to embalm the memory of John Jay in the heart of
every honest man and true patriot. It brings to one's
mind the so much admired decision of the people of
Athens, on the proposition made to them byThemistocles
through Aristides. The letter of Gen. Hamilton may be
seen in 1 Jay, 412 — The general's name is not printed at
the foot of it, but it is, I believe, universally admitted that
he wrote and subscribed it.

There is something singular, and to my mind mysteri-
ous, in the character of Gen. Hamilton. That he was a
very great man — perhaps the greatest man on the score
of talents, who flourished during the revolution, I believe.
The testimony of good judges now living, who knew him
well, and the writings which he has left behind him, par-
ticularly the Federalist, together with his official reports
as secretary of the treasury, sustain me in this opinion;
and that he honestly believed the measur€s which he ad-
vocated were the measures best calculated to advance the
prosperity of the country; and also, that he honestly,
frankly, and fearlessly declared hJs opinions on all proper
occasions, both publicly, and privately, I have no manner
of doubt. But there were many things in his conduct
towards men, which we shall find it difficult to approve;
and in some of his political movements his actions seem
to have been inconsistent with that good faith which a
member, and especially a leader of a political party owes
to the friends with whom he is associated. Upon a close
analysis of his conduct, his errors, I think, will be found
to have originated from having formed too low an estimate
of the intelligence and patriotism of the mass of commu-
nity, and to an immoderate and njost intense personal
ambition.

He was always opposed to Gov. Clinton, but his oppo-

OF NEW-YORK. 147

sltion to him was founded on a radical difference in
opinion, respecting what ought to be the principles and
the policy t)f the government. That opposition was open
and frank, and always conducted honorably. Of Col.
Burr, he w^as the professional rival, (though vastly his
superior,) and he was unwaveringly politically opposed to
himj although Col. Burr at times supported the party to
which Gen.. Hamilton was attached, the hostility of the
latter to the former, seems never for one moment to have
undergone the least mitigation. There were good reasons
why he should have been politically opposed to Gov.
Clinton; and there were also, equally good reasons why
he should have been opposed to Burr, probably as w^ell
personally as politically; — but he was also unfriendly, and
for a long period was opposed to Mr. John Adams. Why
should he have been hostile to Mr. Adamsl Both he
and Mr. Adams were pursuing the same object, the
support of the federal cause in the Union. Adams could
not, had he been disposed to do so, cross the track or
thwart the views of Gen. Hamilton in the state of New-
York. Why then, should the latter have been the early,
the constant, and finally, the vindictive opponent of the
former ? Did Hamilton believe that the northern section
of the union could not sustain two great men 1

On the 22d October, 1800, a few days before the presi-
dential electors were to be chosen in every state in the
nation. Gen. Hamilton published a pamphlet, in the form
of a letter, " on the public conduct and character of John
Adams." It contained a virulent attack upon him, per-
sonally as well as politically; it is said, and indeed it is
intimated by Gen. Hamilton, that he did not intend this
for the public eye; that he caused it to be printed for the
purpose of more conveniently sending it to his confidential
friends. This circumstance, if the attack was unjustifia-
ble, rendered the act more culpable. To attempt to rob

148 POLITICAL HISTORY.

a man of the esteem and confidence of Lis friends bv
secret rommunications, against whicli he cannot defend
himself, because he does not know of their existence, is
more vmjust, more cruel than to attack him openly. This
I can not believe that Mr. Hamilton intended, as it is in-
consistent with the general tenor of his conduct. It is
however, certain, that parts of the letter were made public,
contrary to the wishes of Mr. H., or sooner than he
desired. If the following anecdote be founded upon fact,
it accounts for the premature publication of this document.
It is said that Hamilton ordered it to be privately printed
and the copies all sent to him; that the printer after excu-
ting the work early in the morning, sent the pamphlets by
a boy to Gen. Hamilton^ that Burr, who was an early
riser, happening that morning to be walking in the streets
near the house of Hamilton, met the boy with a cov-
ered basket on his arm, coming from the printing office,
and travelling in the direction of the residence of Hamil-
ton, and casually asked the lad what he had in his basket 1
He said " pamphlets for Gen. Hamilton;" not knowing
that they were of the least importance. Burr then per-
suaded the boy to let him have one of them, and forthwith
caused extracts from it to be published and widely circu-
lated. I can not vouch for the truth of this story; I have
it, however, from a gentleman of high standing, who him-
self believed it. Mr. Davis, (2 life of Burr, 65,) gives a
different account of the means by which the letter of Gen.
H. was first made public.

Gen. Hamilton commences this letter by affirming that
Mr. Adams had great and intrinsic defects in his character,
which rendered him unfit for the office of chief magistrate,
and that his talents were not adapted to the administration
of the government. Mr. H. says in page seven of his
letter, that Mr. Adams " is a man of an imagination
sublimated and eccentric, propitious neither to the regular

OF NEW-YORK. 149

(display of a sound judgment, nor to steady perseverance
in a systematic plan of conduct; and to this defect is
added the unfortunate foible of a vanity without bounds,
and a jealousy capable of discoloring every object." For
proof of this he relates several anecdotes of Mr. Adams,
some of them referring to occurrences in France. To
show the propensity of Mr. Adams to be jealous of his
friends, Mr. H., after stating that it was agreed among the
federalists in 1796, when the presidential office became
vacant by the declension of Gen. Washington, that Mr.
Adams and Mr. Pinckney should be equally supported,
leavins" it to casual accession of votes in favor of the one
or the other of them to turn the scale between them, says,
" it is true that a faithful execution of this plan would
have given Mr. Pinckney a better chance than Mr. Adams,
nor shall it be concealed that an issue favorable to the for-
mer would 7iot have been disagreeable to me. * * * My
position was, that if chance should decide in favor of Mr.
Pinckney it probably would not be a misfortune, since he,
to every essential qualification for the office, added a tem-
per far more discreet and conciliatory than that of Mr.
Adams." {Letter p. 11, 12.) Now let us, for one mo-
ment, look at this project, and first, let me remark that
the public proceedings and papers of that day, (1796,)
show as clearly that Mr. Adams was the candidate of the
federal party for president, as that Mr. Jefferson was the
candidate for that office, in 1800, of the republican party
Probably oot one out of a thousand of the federalists,
dreamed of Mr. Pinckney for president. This General
H. must have known. He knew, too, that the southern
states generally would vote for Mr. Jefferson. Is it not
probable that he knew, (certainly he had good reason to
believe,) that South-Carolina wouhl do what she actually
did do, give eight votes to Mr. Jefferson and eight to their
own favorite citizen, Pinckney 7 If then, the plan of

150 POLITICAL HISTORY

Gen. H. had been carried out and the northern federal
states had given an equal number of votes to Mr. Adams
and Mr. Pinckney, Gen. H. must have known Pinckney
would have been elected president contrary to the expec-
tations and wishes of ninety-nine hundredths of the fede-
ralists. Would this have been fair ? Would it have been
honorable 1

Mr. Hamilton complains that Mr. Adams spoke un-
kindly of him, and was jealous of him. Is it matter of
surprise that Mr. Adams should have so spoken and felt 1
He and his friends must have discovered the plot. The
votes given for Ellsworth and Jay in the New-England
states prove this, {seep. 102.) These yankees discovering
that a trick was about to be played upon them, were very
quiet, but eventually played a yankee trick upon the plot-
ters. Mr. Hamilton says " Mr. Adams never could for-
give those engaged in this plan;" but for my part I cannot
deem him blamable for rememberino; and distrustino^
those who formed and attempted to execute it.

Gen. Hamilton then animadverts with great severity on
many of the measures of Mr. Adams, and pronounces his
conduct as president to be " a heterogenous mass of right
and wrong." Gen. Hamilton, towards the close, says, he
" does not advise the withholding from Mr. Adams a sin-
gle vote, but he claims an equal support of Mr. Pinckney
with Mr. Adams," {p. 51.) He says he intends the cir-
culation of that letter to be confined to narrow limits.
Now, did not Gen. H. know that, in this CQuntry, you
might as well attempt to confine the light of the sun, as
the matter contained in a printed sheet, when once given
to the public 1

Again, did not that sagacious politician know that to
impair the confidence of the public, or any considerable
portion of the federal party, in Mr. Adams, at that par-
ticular juncture, would be fatal to the federal cause in

OF NEW- YORK. 151

America, and would render certain the event he so much
deprecated in his letter to Mr. Jay — the election of Mr.
Jefferson. Why, then, should he have written and pub-
lished this letter 1 Why, in 1796, did he deliberately
concoct a scheme, which, had it been successful, must
have thrown the federal party into utter confusion, and
thwarted the ardent and anxious wishes of an immense
majority of his political friends 1 Did he suppose that
the election of a southern president, even if he was a mis-
chievous democrat, would hasten the elevation to the first
office in the nation of the great northern financier'?*

The friends of Col. Burr charged Gen. Hamilton with
inducing Mr. David A. Ogden to call on Col. Burr, previ-
ous to the election by the house of representatives, osten-
sibly with a view to ascertain what would be his course
of conduct towards the federalists, if elected president; but
really for the purpose of destroying his standmg with the
republican party by drawing him out on that subject.
This however, appears not to be correct, from the state-
ment made by Mr. Ogden, in the Morning Chronicle, in
the year 1802. Indeed, ■ if Mr. O. had not made this
statement, no man would have believed that Gen, Hamil-
ton could have descended to such trickery. He was en-
tirely incapable of anything like meanness. It is however,

* It would seem that as commander-in-chief of the army of the United States,
Gen. Hamilton made, in the summer of 1800, a tour through some of the New-
England states. A writer in the Boston Independent Chronicle, who claims to be
a friend of John Adams, over the signature of Manlius, charges tliat the General's
visit was political, having for its object the prostration of Mr. Adams. On that
tour Gen. Hamilton is charged with predicting among his friends — and the names
of Messrs. Pinckney, Ames, and Cabot, are mentioned as some of them— that "If
Mr. Pinckney was not elected president a revolution would be the consequence ;
and that within the next four years he," (Hamilton,) " should lose his liead or be
the leader of a triumphant army."

I have been unable to find a contradiction of this story in the federal papers
published during that year; but the style of conversation is so unlike that which
■was geneally adopted by Gen. Hamilton, I cannot credit it.

The communication of Manlius will be found in the Albany Register of Alt
gust 12, IWO

152, POLITICAL HISTORY

certain, that as between Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Burr, Gen.
Hamilton was in favor of Mr. Jefferson, and so advised his
friends in congress. He considered Jefferson the least
dangerous man of the two.

On the first Tuesday of November the new legislature
convened, and Samuel Osgood of New-York, was chosen
speaker.

The governor, in his speech, alluded to the appointment
of presidential electors as the cause of that early session,
and intimated that danger might arise from allowing too
much excitement to prevail at times when the chief magi-
strate of the nation was to be chosen. He therefore re-
commended the suppression of all inflammatory feeling.
The residue of his address was confined to local objects
proper for state legislation. He recommended the pap-
sage of an act for the call of a convention for the sole
purpose of restricting the number of senators and members
of the assembly.

The two houses immediately proceeded to choose elec-
tors for president and vice-president. The senate nomi-
nated federal electors and the assembly republican. Upon
a joint ballot the following persons, all republicans, were
declared duly elected — Isaac Ledyard of Queens, Anthony
Lispenard of New- York, Pierre Van Cortland, jun. of
Westchester, James Burt of Orange, Gilbert Livingston
of Dutchess, Thomas Jenkins and Peter Van Ness of Co-
lumbia, Robert Ellis of Saratoga, John Woodworth of
Rensselaer, Jeremiah Van Rensselaer of Albany, Jacob
Acker of Montgomery, and William Floyd of Suffolk.

In the senate the federal electoral ticket received twen-
ty-four votes, and the republican eighteen. In the assem-
bly the republican ticket received sixty-four votes, and the
federal thirty-nine. On joint ballot the republican candi-
dates for electors were chosen by twenty-two majority.
On the 7th November a resolution was offered in the

OF KEVV-YORK. 153

assembly, to elect a council of appointment. This reso-
lution was opposed by the federalists, on the ground that
the council then in existence had not been in office for a
year from the time of their appointment. The same ques-
tion, it will be recollected, arose in 1794. The only dif-
ference was, the parties had reversed their position. The
federalists now held the same doctrine and urged the
same arguments that the republicans did then; and the re-
publicans now adopted the arguments of the federalists in
1794. Such is the consistency of partizans !

The resolution was adopted, and De Witt Clinton, Am-
brose Spencer, Robert Roseboom, and John Sanders, were
elected members of the council of appointment for the
ensuing year. AH were republicans except Mr. Sanders.
It may however, be proper to mention, that the old coun-
cil continued to act, notwithstanding the choice of the
new, until the expiration of a year from the time they
were chosen ; for I find them in session on the 23d
January, 1801, when Solomon Van Rensselaer was ap-
pointed adjutant general, in lieu of Col. Van Home, whose
illness rendered him incapable of performing the duties
of the office. And here I cannot help remarking, that
when this question was agitated in 1794, the assertion by
the republicans, that the old council would have a right to
act until the end of the year, was treated by the federa-
lists as preposterous, and as an attempt at a dangerous and
unconstitutional usurpation of power. In that case the
old council did not insist upon their right to continue in
office, and the new council forthwith proceeded to appoint
a judge of the supreme court, (Judge Benson;) this ap-
pointment being in truth the cause of the collision which
then occurred.

On the 6th November, John Armstrong was, by almost
an unanimous vote, elected to the senate of the United
States, in place of John Lawrence, who had resigned.

154 POLITICAL HISTORY

Gen. Armstrong was connected by marriage with the Liv-
ingston family. As a man eminent for talents, and espe-
cially as one of the most powerful political writers in
America, and as a national politician, he is well known;
but it does not appear that either at that or any other time
he was apparently very active in the management of
the political concerns of this state. I am unacquainted
with the causes which, at this period of high political ex-
citement, procured him an almost unanimous nomination
from the senate of this state, which we have seen was de-
cidedly federal. It maybe that the federalists in the sen-
ate, knowing that they could not succeed in the choice of
one of their political friends, in consequence of the repub-
lican majority in joint ballot, yielded to the appointment
of General Armstrong as the least exceptionable republi-
can candidate for that office. Gen. Armstrong had been
a federalist, and continued such till about the year 1797
or 1798.

The answers of the two houses to the governor's speech,
were respectful. That from the senate was a mere echo,
but the answer of the assembly was interlarded with innu-
endoes of a party character.

The legislature, on the 8th Nov., adjourned to the last
Tuesday in January.

Before the members separated, and on the evening of
the 8th, the republicans nominated George Clinton to be
supported at the next gubernatorial election, and at a sub-
sequent meeting of citizens Jeremiah Van Rensselaer was
nominated lieutenant governor. At the caucus which
nominated Mr. Clinton, Henry Rutgers was chairman, and
Smith Thompson was secretary.

On the same day the federal members held a meeting
and addressed Gov. Jay, highly approving of his official
conduct, and requesting him to stand a candidate for a re-
election. By a written answer the governor thanKed

OF KEW-YORK. 155

them cordially for the approbation they had expressed of
his conduct, and for the evidence their address afforded of
continued confidence, but positively declined being again
a candidate, declaring that he had years before determined
that at this period of his life he would retire from all pub-
lic employment. He afterwards repeated the same decla-
rations to a meeting of New-York freeholders, (^ee 1 Jay.)
His communications in both cases were affectionate and
patriotic, and in accordance with the purity and excellence
of his private and public/character. He kept his resolu-
tion most firmly and religiously. It is said that after he
went into retirement he would not even read the political
newspapers of the day. This great and good man may
have occasionally erred in judgment, but for purity of
motive and character no man ever lived who exceeded
him. In saying that he may have erred in judgment, I
do not mean that he was not a man of great powers of
mind and highly capable of judging. John Jay was be-
yond question not only one of the purest, but one of the
ablest of the revolutionary statesmen and patriots. Nou d.

The federalists afterwards nominated Stephen Van
Rensselaer for governor and James Watson for lieutenant
governor.

On the 11th of February the new council met the gov-
ernor for the first time, and the war between them and the
governor was forthwith commenced. Gov. Jay nominated
Jesse Thompson for sheriff of the county of Dutchess;
which nomination was non-concurred in by a majority of
the council. He then proceeded to nominate seven others
for the same office, who were successively rejected by the
council. He made some other nominations which were
approved by the council. The council then adjourned to
the 18th of the same month, when Robert Williams, after-
wards celebrated in the party annals of the state, was ap-
pointed sheriff of Dutchess. Williams was a republican.

156 POLITICAL IIISTOUY

On the 24tli the council again met, when an unsuccessful
attempt was made to appoint a sheriff of the county of
Schoharie, and also of the county of Orange. The gover-
nor nominated Benjamin Jackson as sheriff of Orange,
"VN^ho was negatived. He then nominated several other
persons with the same result. Mr. Clinton thereupon
nominated John Blake, jun. The governor, instead of
putting the question, nominated John Nickolson. On
this nomination the majority of the council refused to vote.
The parties were in this predicament, the governor insist-
ing on the exclusive right of nomination, and the council
on a concurrent right; the governor refusing to put the
question upon any nomination made by a member of the
council, and the council refusing to vote on the nomina-
tions made by the governor. Upon these issues being
formed, Mr. Jay stated to the council that he desired time
for consideration before he determined on the course which
he should pursue; and thereupon the council adjourned.
Gov. Jay never convened them again. It is not impro-
bable that Mr. Clinton and Judge Spencer were rather
desirous to produce a breach, and so great a breach as to
prevent the future action of the council with Gov. Jay as
its president. While he occupied that station, it was im-
possible for them to bestow the patronage of the state in
all respects as they desired, and they had good reason to
believe that the election in April would result in the
choice of a governor who accorded with them in political
views. On the 26th February, Gov. Jay sent a message
to the assembly setting forth his difficulties with the ma-
jority of the council and the causes of those difficulties.
He reminded them that in his first speech after his election
he had besought the legislature to pass an act declaratory
of the powers of the governor while acting as president
of the council; that the legislature had neglected to act
upon that recommendation; that in the absence of all le-

OF NEW-YORK. 157

gislative direction he was bound to act according to his
own views of the true construction of the twenty-third
article of the constitution ; that he conscientiously believ-
ed that the constitution vested in the governor the exclu-
sive right of nomination; and this being his sincere and
honest opinion, he should violate his oath were he to yield
the right to the council. He was not surprised, he said,
that the council should claim a concurrent right of nomi-
nation, because that claim had been before made, and be-
cause intelligent men might differ as to the propriety of
that claim; but he complained of the council for refusing
to vote on his nominations. This course of conduct, if
carried out, might result in establishing a claim of exclu-
sive nomination by the senators who were members of the
council. He concluded by asking the directions of the
legislature. The assembly, however, resolved that it was
a constitutional question to be decided not by them, but by
the governor and council. The governor also addressed
the chancellor and judges of the supreme court, and re-
quested their opinion, which they unanimously declined
giving, on the ground, that the expression of an opinion
by them was not within the scope of their official duties,
but entirely extrajudicial.

On the 17th March, Messrs. Clinton, Spencer and
Roseboom made a written communication to the assembly
in which they give their version of the transactions of the
governor and the council, which does not materially differ
from that given by Gov. Jay. They say they have only
in one instance claimed the right of nomination, (the case
of Mr. Blake,) but they insist they have such right, and
they go into a long train of reasoning to support that po-
sition. They say the right has never been yielded by the
council, (although it will be remembered Gov. Clinton
protested against it;) on the contrary, they refer to its
exercise under Gov. Clinton in the case of Judge Benson.

158 POLITICAL HISTORY

This commuication Is written with some degree of asperity,
and alludes to the character and conduct of Mr. Jay in a
spirit of decided hostility.

Upon looking back to the proceedings of the senate in
1796, it is impossible to avoid some surprise and regret to
find Judge Spencer, not satisfied with a declaration on the
part of the senate that the previous official conduct of
Gov. Jay inspired the members of that house with confi-
dence that his administration would be in every respect
beneficial to their constituents, but insisting that the senate
should declare that Mr. Jay's whole official life had " mva-
riahly " aiforded evidence of integrity, patriotism and
wisdom; which, in effect, amounted to a solemn affirma-
tion that under all circumstances and on all occasions it
had been precisely what it ought to have been, and inva-
riably free from error ; thus ascribing to him a perfec-
tion incompatible with human nature, and then to find,
after the lapse of so short a period of time, the name of the
same Judge Spencer subscribed to this communication — a
communication which contains intrinsic evidence of having
been partly, if not wholly, written by himself.

Very few occurrences of much interest took place in
either house of the leo-islature durino; the remainder of this
session. On the 6th of March, Judge Peck reported a
bill for the regulation of common schools. What the
particular provisions of that bill were, I do not know, for
it seems it was not passed into a law. A bill however,
was passed before the legislature adjourned, directing the
raising, by means of four successive lotteries, of the sum
of one hundred thousand dollars, twelve thousand five
hundred dollars of which were to be paid to the regents of
the university, to be by them distributed among the acade-
mies in such manner as they should deem most proper;
and the residue, eighty-seven thousand and five hundred
dollars, was to be paid into the treasury, to be appropriated

OP NEW-YORK. 159

for the encouragement of common schools, as the legisla-
ture should thereafter direct. This bill probably grew out
of the project proposed by Judge Peck. It is due to this
plain, unlettered farmer to add, that he was intent upon
making some permanent provisions for these institutions,
and that he formed the project of establishing a common
school fund in pursuance of the example then lately fur-
nished by Connecticut, the state from whence he emigrated;
that he never lost sight of it, and that to his indefatigable
and persevering efforts, aided by Mr. Adam Comstock of
Saratoga, another uneducated and plain, but clear sighted
and patriotic man,we are principally indebted for our school
fund and our common school system. What military
chieftain — what mere conqueror by brute force, has con-
ferred so deep, so enduring an obligation upon posterity ?

On the 6th April a law was passed entitled " An Act
recommendiyig a Convention."

One great defect in the constitution of 1777 was, that
it did not contain within itself any provisions for its alte-
ration or amendment.

According to that constitution, the assembly and the
senate, especially the senate, were increasing in numbers
to a degree extremely inconvenient. Hence the gover-
nor, in his speech, invited the attention of the legisla-
ture to that subject, and the recent dispute between the
governor and council about the right of nomination to
office convinced all reflecting men that that question
should be definitively settled. Under these circumstances
some alteration in the constitution became absolutely ne-
cessary. But the legislature found themselves wholly
unauthorised to pass a law which would warrant any class
of men to alter the old constitution, or make a new one.
However, as necessity knows no law, they recommended
to the people to choose delegates who should be authorised
solely to take into consideration that part of the constitu-

160 POLITICAL HISTORY

tion which related to the members of the senate aiul as-
sembly, and to determine the true construction of the
twenty-third article of the constitution. The act further
provided that the delegates should be equal in number
from the respective counties to the members of the assem-
bly; that they should be chosen in the month of August
then next, by all freemen over twenty-one years of age;
that the delegates thus elected should meet at Albany
on the second Tuesday in October; that the determina-
tion of the convention respecting the matters therein be-
fore mentioned should be entered of record and should
thereupon be considered as a part of the constitution of
this state.

It can scarcely be necessary to add that on the 17th of
February Mr. Jefferson was, by the states in congress,
elected president, or to speak of the manner of that elec-
tion. The history of that fearful contest, which from day
to day threatened a dissolution of the government, is well
known. The new^s of the result was received by the re-
publicans in every part of the nation with acclamations of
joy, but perhaps, nowhere with more heartfelt exultation
than in the state of New-York. On the 4th of March,
meetings were held, processions were formed, and orations
were delivered in almost every city and village in the
state. The republican members of the legistature and the
citizens of Albany, and citizens from other parts of the
state, joined in the general festivity. A splendid dinner
was provided and toasts were drank. I allude to the pro-
ceedings of this meeting to show that at that time, what-
ever views individuals may have entertained of the recent
conduct of Col. Burr, the republican party generally had
confidence in him, and that he stood high in their esteem.
The Albany Register, then the organ of the republican
party in the state, in reference to this celebration, says: —
" In rejoicing on this occasion they, [the company,] did

OF NEW-YOKK. 161

not forget the important success of the republicans in the
choice of that firm and tried patriot Aaron Burr as vice-
president of the United States."

Among the regular toasts drank, the next after the toast
to Mr. Jefferson, was —

''^ Aaron Burr, Vice-President of the United States —
His uniform and patriotic exertions in favor of republi-
canism eclipsed only by his late disinterested conduct."

Mr. De Witt Clinton was present, and gave the follow-
ing volunteer —

" Our republican brethren of the south — May we always
be united with them in the elevation of patriots and the
promotion of good principles."

Could any one imagine that the bitter waters of strife
were so soon to succeed the copious drafts from the flow-
ing bowl, which tlien circulated with such apparent cordial
conviviality 1 Man is mutable — politicians are most mu-
table !

The electioneering campaign between Gov. Clinton and
Gen. Van Rensselaer was opened and prosecuted with
great spirit and vigor. It gives me pleasure on this occa-
sion, to notice one circumstance highly honorable to Mr.
Van Rensselaer, but which, indeed, is in perfect keeping
with the character and conduct of that good man.

It had, it seems, been given out, probably by some ot
his over zealous friends, that those of his tenantry who
were in arrears in the payment of their rent, (and there
were probably thousands who were so,) if they refused to
vote for him would be prosecuted for those arrears. Upon
this report coming to the ears of the patroon he forth-
with published, in all the papers printed in Albany and
Rensselaer counties, that the report was wholly untrue.
He assured his tenants that he wished them to vote as in
their judgment their duty to the country required, and

that no man should be prosecuted who voted against him.

11

162 POLITICAL HISTORY

After such a noble and magnanimous declaration, I am
not at all surprised that in the county of Albany the pa-
troon received two thousand one hundred and thirty-eight
votes, while Gov. Clinton received but seven hundred and
fifty-five. This vote w-as equally honorable to those who
gave as to him who received it. The general result of
the election however, in the state, was in favor of the re-
publican party. Gov. Clinton was chosen by more than
four thousand majority, and a majority of republicans
were elected members of the assembly.

We have thus seen a great party, which had for twelve
years been in the ascendancy in the nation, and the greater
part of that time had controlled the political destinies of
the state of New-York ; a party which claimed for its
head and leader one of the greatest and best men who ever
existed in any age or country — the immortal Washington;
a party which contained in its ranks a majority of the emi-
nent sages and patriots of the revolution, and an host of
men possessing talents of the highest order, and justly dis-
tinguished for their public and private virtue, prostrated by
the fiat of the people of this state and of the United States,
expressed through the polls of election. I should assume
too much, were I to attempt to speculate on the causes
which produced this great civil revolution. I may, how-
ever, be permitted to mention one leading error, which in
my opinion, was embraced by the prominent federalists,
and which gradually extended itself among their ranks.
They did not properly appreciate the intelligence and
good sense of the mass of the community. They con-
sidered them as incapable of judging what was for their
best good. It is said General Hamilton, in addressing a
mass meeting in New-York, told the people that they
themselves were their own worst enemies. It was not
discreet to make such a declaration had it been true; but,
in my judgment, it is not true. Although there are many

OF NEW-YORK. IG'5

among us who are incapable of judging of the merits of
great political measures, yet in every community, in every
neighborhood, and I may add, among every twelve men,
promiscuously gathered, in the most benighted corners of
the state, you will find some men of good sound common
sense, very capable of weighing and deciding upon ques-
tions upon which they are required to decide and act. It
was this unjust estimate of the intelligence and virtue of
the mass of the people, which induced the federalists to
sigh for a more energetic government, and which carried
them into a course of reasonino- and action which resulted
in the utter overthrow of that great, talented and powerful
party.

164 POLITICAL HISTORY

CHAPTER VI.

FROM MAY 1, ISOl, TO MAY 1, 1802.

In the southern district E. L'Hommedieu was this year
re-elected to the senate; from the middle James G. Gra-
ham, Jacobus S. Bruyn and Peter A. Van Bergen; from
the eastern John Tayler, Christopher Hutton, Abraham
Van Vechten, Ebenezer Clark and James Van Schoonho-
ven, the two first named being republicans and the three
last federalists, and from the western district Lemuel Chip-
man, John Myers and Isaac Foote, all federalists, were
elected. Thus, it will be seen, there were six republicans
and six federalists elected. It will be recollected that in
April, 1800, there was a democratic majority in the west-
ern district. As the democratic party from April, 1800,
to 1801, was generally on the gain, it is probable the suc-
cess of the federal party in the western district was owing
to some local causes with which we are at present unac-
quainted. Perhaps the republican candidates, or some of
them, were personally unpopular. In the assembly a
large majority of republicans were elected.

On the last Tuesday in August, and the two succeeding
days, the members for a convention to amend the consti-
tion were chosen, in pursuance of the act passed in April
preceding, of which I have already spoken. The election
resulted in the choice of a great majority of republicans.
Indeed, from the tone of the political press of that day, it
does not appear that the federalists, as a party, made any
considerable efforts.

John V. Henry, a principal and leading federalist, was
elected from Albany county. De Witt Clinton was cho-
sen by the electors of the county of Kings; Aaron Burr,

OF NEW-VOBK. 166

though he, as well as Mr. Clinton, resided in New-York,
was elected a member of the convention from the county
of Orangej William P. Van Ness, of whom we have pre-
viously spoken as the confidential friend of Col. Burr,
was elected from New-York, and Smith Thompson, at
present an associate judge of the United States supreme
court, was elected from the county of Dutchess. Daniel
D. Tompkins, who afterwards made so distinguished a
figure in the political controversies of the state, made his
first appearance in public life as a member of this conven
tion from the city of New-York.

The convention met on the 13th of October at Albany,
and organized by unanimously electing Col. Burr presi-
dent.

It must not be forgotten that the convention was re-
stricted to the determination of two questions only. The
first was, to fix a limit to the number of senators and
members of assembly, and the other question which they
were authorised to decide was that relating to " the true
construction of the twenty-third article of the consti-
tution." They soon agreed as to the limitation of the
number of the members of the two houses of the legisla-
ture. De Witt Clinton proposed the plan which was
adopted. In fact there seems not to have been much
difficulty in settling the question of the right of nomina-
tion to office by the members of the appointing power ;
for on the question of adopting the clause on that subject,
there were but fourteen members who voted in the nega-
tive. This unanimity seems to me somewhat extraordinary.
Had the question been an original one, that is, whether it
was most discreet and wise that the members of the coun-
cil of appointment should possess a concurrent right with
the governor to nominate all officers, or whether the right
of nomination should be exclusively vested in the gover-
nor, there would not be much cause of surprise that party

J 66 POLITICAL HISTORY

men, although engaged in amending or making a constitu
tion, should have unanimously supported the doctrines of
their party. But the power of deciding upon the expedi-
ency or propriety of exclusive or concurrent nomination
was notj by the act to which the convention owed their
existence, committed to them. They were merely autho-
rized to declare " the true consruction of the twenty-third
article of the constitution," but not to alter the terms of that
article, or abolish and make a new one in lieu of it. The
act recommending a convention, under which they had
been elected and were then sitting, vested them with judi-
cial powers only. They were merely authorized to
expound and declare the true intent and meaning of the
convention of 1777, when they adopted the twenty-third
article. Perhaps the true cause of the apparent unanimity
of opinion on this occasion, was, that both the federal and
republican parties had in their conflicts with each other,
committed themselves in favor of the construction that the
members of the council possessed a concurrent right of
nomination with the governor — the federalists in 1794,
w^hen Judge Benson was appointed, and the republicans
in the winter of 1801.

From the meagre reports of the proceedings of the con-
vention it appears that Mr. John V. Henry was the only-
man who made an argument in favor of the exclusive right
of the governor to nominate. De Witt Clinton, who took
the other side of the question and voted with the majority,
lived long enough to have reason from his own experience
bitterly to deplore that the convention had not adopted
the construction given to the article by his venerable uncle,
George Clinton, and by the learned, judicious and consci-
entious John Jay. Here then, is another proof that legis-
lators, and especially constitution-makefs, in passing gene-
ral laws and establishing general rules, should never act
from party considerations. William P. Van Ness was

OF NEW-YORK. 167

one of the fourteen who voted against this construction of
the constitution, and Daniel D. Tompkins was another.
Precisely twenty years afterwards, in the convention of
1821, Gov. Tompkins referred to his conduct on this
occasion with self-satisfaction and just cause of triumph.
He said, [Debates in the Convention, j). 116,] " The con-
vention of 1801 was assembled to sanction a violent
construction of the constitution. Then, the maxim was,
to strip the governor of as much power as possible. Now,
gentlemen are for giving him more power. In the con-
vention of 1801 he was opposed to retrenching the power
of the executive. To him it was a proud triumph, that at
the age of twenty-six, he stood alone against the then
dominant party; and he believed that there were members
who would now be proud if it could be said that they had
taken the same ground."

Gov, Tompkins was mistaken in saying that he was the
only republican Avho took this course. William P. Van
Ness was with him, a circumstance which he had no doubt
forgotten. Ought not this incident in the life of Tomp-
kins to admonish young politicians to act according to the
dictates of their own consciences, without regard to the
popular breeze which at the moment may happen to agi-
tate the political atmosphere 1

The reader will recollect that the rupture between Gov.
Jay and his council took place on the 24th of February,

1801, and that, although he continued in office until July
following, he never again called the council together.
He will also bear in mind that the council, consisting of
De Witt Clinton, Ambrose Spencer, John Sanders and
Robert Roseboom, continued in office till the winter of

1802. On the 8th of August, 1801, Gov. Clinton invited
a meeting of the council.

The proceedings of this council, after Mr. Clinton was

168 POLITICAL HISTORY

inducted into office, were, at the time, the subject of much
complaint and severe animadversion.

It has often been remarked by citizens and politicians
of our sister states, that the action of political parties in
the state of New- York was to them unaccountable and
mysterious. They saw men elevated to distinguished
stations many times, without any apparent cause of such
elevation ; they saw others assailed and denounced, and
they witnessed the total prostration of men high in office,
and proscribed even by the party professing to support
the same measures and holding the same political princi-
ples as those who were thus cast out of the political
church, without even an attempt to charge the proscribed
individuals with either a want of talent, of official miscon-
duct, of immorality, or of heresy in their political princi-
ples. Hence, hundreds of strangers have said to me that
the politics of New-York were to them a perfect enigma.
The cause of this mysterious development of the action of
parties will, I think, be in a great measure found in the
manner in which the appointing power executed its func-
tions, after the alteration of the constitution by the con-
vention of 1801.

In Vermont, and in several other of the United States,
nearly all the appointments are made by the most nume-
rous branch of the legislature, and in other states they are
made by the governor and senate. In cases where so
many men are required to pass upon the fitness of an
appointment, it is difficult, and generally speaking, impos-
sible to distribute the state patronage for the purpose of
advancing tha interest or influence of any individual, or
any particular clique of incli\'iduals. Some of the many
persons who hold the appointing power, will discover the
object of the prime movers and expose and denounce them.
Exposure forthwith puts an end to the successful prosecu-
tion of individual ambitious projects, whose success depends

OF NEW-VORK. 169

on the bestowment of state patronage. In states where
the governor possesses the sole power of nominating or
appointing to office, he, feeling his responsibility to, and
his dependence upon the whole people, dare not, in gene-
ral, prostitute his power to the promotion of individual
interests and views. These checks could not be brought
effectually to bear on the members of the council of appoint-
ment. They were commonly men who, like Mr. Clinton
and Mr. Spencer, were about to retire from the legislature
and who cherished high and ambitious projects; or, like Mr.
Robert Roseboom, honest and unpretending, but who were
suddenly raised from a mediocrity of standing in life, and
in the legislature, to the possession of great power. This
last sort of men, for the space of one year, were followed,
caressed and flattered; but, on the expiration of that year,
when they ceased to be members of the council, they in-
stantly fell back to the position in society and in the
public eye, which they formerly occupied. They remind
one of the transitions produced by the power of magic, as
detailed by the author of the Arabian Night's tales. Like
the player who, while clothed with royal habiliments and
enacting Julius Caesar or Richard the Third, excites your
admiration and perhaps your veneration and awe, yet, the
moment the curtain drops, he is transformed to a street
stroller, about whom, individually, you think little and
care less. It is evident that neither of these classes of
men, while members of the council of appointment, could
feel that high sense of responsibility to the people which
the genius of our government demands from officers pos-
sessing such important delegated powers. Besides, it was
often difficult to ascertain who ought to be charged with
the sin of an improper appointment. The ayes and noes
are not entered on the minutes of the council unless ex
pressly directed by the dissenting councillors. An incom
petent and dishonest man was appointed a justice of the

170 POLITICAL HISTORY

peace in your neighborhood. A. B. C. and D. are mem-
bers of the council. Charge A. with the improper act,
and ten to one he would tell you, " I had nothing to do
with it," and that he either voted against it or had no re-
collection of the transaction; and the same answer might
be given by B. C. and D.

From this hasty view of the council of appointm-ent,
one cannot fail of perceiving that it constituted a branch
of the government w'hich would be likely to be wielded
for the immediate benefit of the councillors themselves, or
that its members were extremely liable to become the tools
of artful and designing men, either in or out of the legisla-
ture. ,

Mr. Clinton and Mr. Spencer were both young men,
and after the latter abandoned the federal party, they be-
came cordial and confidential friends. Mr. Clinton was
then but thirty-two years old. Both were ambitious anJ
highly talented. Mr. Spencer was already distinguished
as a lawyer, and Mr. Clinton, from his near relationship
with the governor, the talents he had displayed as a writer
and his energy as a politician and legislator, was viewed
by all as a person who might reasonably entertain high
expectations in public life. These gentlemen were under-
stood as acting, and no doubt did act, in perfect concert
as members of the present council; but a general impres-
sion prevailed that Mr. Clinton was the leader of the two,
and of course the master spirit which controlled the coun-
cil ; Mr. Roseboora on all important questions, following
the lead of the other two republican members. Mr. Clin-
ton, on his arrival in Albany, previous to the first meeting
of the council after Gov. Clinton was seated in the guber-
natorial chair, caused it to be publicly made known that
in his judgment the heads of the executive departments of
the state ought to be composed of men w'ho accorded with
the majority of the people of the state in their political

or NEW- YORK. 171

views; and that the minor offices ought to be equally dis-
tributed between each party according to their respective
numbers. His views, as represented by the Albany Re-
gister, on the subject of appointments, were substantially
the same as those expressed by Mr. Jefferson in his cele-
brated letter to the New-Haven merchants, in answer to
their remonstrance against the removal of the collector of
that port and the appointment of Mr. Bishop. Even this
line of conduct, moderate as it may now seem, was carry-
ing the exercise and influence of the appointing power
much farther than had been done by any preceding admi-
nistration. Gov. Clinton, during the eighteen years he
had administered the government, never in a single in-
stance had consented to the removal of an officer on
account of his political opinions and without proof of
incompetence or misconduct; and even then not without
notice having been given to the incumbent, and opportu-
nity afforded him to make his defence before the council.
Gov. Jay professed to adhere, and I presume did himself
adhere, to the same rule of action, although there were,
as we have seen, one or two removals from small offices
without notice to the incumbents, and without any cause
appearing on the journals of the council. But these
removals, it is fair to presume, were made by the members
of the council against the wishes of Mr. Jay. It strikes
me, however, that there is no just cause to complain of the
rule of action which Mr. Clinton declared would govern
his conduct as a councillor. The public interest certainly
requires that the heads of the executive department should
entertain the same views, on all great political questions,
as the chief executive, otherwise jealousies will grow up
and obstructions will be likely to be thrown in the way
of the action of one department by the other, and the
governmental machine, instead of each part moving in
unison with all the other parts, will be checked and

172 POLITICAL HISTOUY

clogged in its operation; and as respects the inferior offi-
ces surely no party in the minority ought to complain if
they have a proportion of the offices and emoluments
equal to their numbers when compared with the party in
the majority. But when the public once learned that
office and its emoluments were to be conferred on account
of the political opinion held by the candidate, both Mr.
Jefferson and Mr. Clinton soon must have been convinced
that the importunity of political friends could not be re-
sisted, and accordingly they themselves were the first to
violate their own rules.

When the political control of the state was transferred
from the federal to the republican party, by the elections
of April 1800 and 1801, the republican party in New-York
may be said to have had three leaders. These were the
Clintons, the Livingstons, and Aaron Burr. By far the
greatest number of people belonged to that portion of the
republican party who were attached to Gov. Clinton; the
Livingstons, as a family, were numerous, more wealthy,
and hence the most powerful; and Col. Burr possessed a
small number of friends and admirers, most of whom
resided in the city of New-York, but he had a few follow-
ers in almost every county in the state. He had no
family connexions, nor were his supporters, generally
speaking, men of wealth. He himself seems always to
have been insolvent, although he received and expended
a great amount of money. But his friends, though few
in number, were extremely devoted to their chief, and
most of them were men of considerable political tact and
uncommonly active. Before the council, of which we
are now speaking, commenced their operations, Burr had
rendered himself obnoxious to the animadversions and
suspicions of the republican party by his conduct in rela-
tion to the pending presidential election, and there is
every reason to believe that, notwithsiandmg the senti-

OF NEW-YORK. 173

\

ments expressed at the Albany festival in the winter of
1801, held in commemoration of the democratic triumph
in the election of Jefferson and Burr, on which occasion
Mr. Burr was toasted as a person whose " uniform and
patriotic exertions in the cause of republicanism were
eclipsed only by his late disinterested conduct^'' (referring
undoubtedly to his conduct during the presidential can-
vass,) before that council made a single appointment, it
was determined by the Clintons and Livingstons that
Burr and his immediate partizans should no longer be
considered as members of the republican party. The
great offices of state were therefore to be divided between
the Clintons and the Livingstons, and their immediate
friends.

At the first meeting of the council on the 8th of August,
John Blake was appointed sheriff of Orange county, and
Peter Vrooman sheriff of Schoharie. These gentlemen
Gov. Jay had, on the 24th February, refused to nominate,
and that refusal was the immediate cause of the breach
between him and the council. Sylvanus Miller was
appointed surrogate of New-York. He was the ardent
friend of Mr. De Witt Clinton, and continued, through all
the changes of fortune which were then in reserve for his
patron, his unwavering supporter. Mr. Miller at, or
shortly before his appointment, was a resident of the
county of Ulster; and the New- York people complained
of the council for importing a surrogate from the country
for that city. But the good nature and prepossessing
deportment of Mr. Miller soon dissipated those complaints.
Possessed of a great fund of anecdote, fine conversational
powers and ready wit, which was dealt out in such a
manner as never to wound the feelings of others, and of a
disposition the most social, he soon became what he now
is, though far advanced in life, the favorite of all who
knew him. He, for many years, held the office of surro-

174 POLITICAL HISTORY

gate, which in the great city of New-York is an highly
important office; and I have never heard him charged
with official misconduct. Edward Livingston, then a
distinguished member of congress, was created mayor of
New-York. Maj. Daniel Hale was removed from the
office of secretary of state, and Doct. Thomas Tillotson
was appointed in his place. This gentleman was, by
marriage, connected with the Livingston family. I be-
lieve he was the brother-in-law of the chancellor.. John
V. Henry was removed from the office of comptroller, and
Elisha Jenkins was appointed his successor. Mr. Jen-
kins was a merchant of the city of Hudson. H-s ap-
pointment to this office was undoubtedly produced by Mr.
Spencer. Mr. J. abandoned the federal party in company
with Mr. Spencer, and has ever since steadily adhered to
his political fortunes. From the principles upon which
the council assumed to act, as declared by Mr. Clinton,
the removal of Mr. Henry followed as a matter of course;
but it is nevertheless to be regretted that a man of such
pure integrity, high principles of honor and distinguished
talents, could not have been retained in the service of the
state. It is not derogatory to Mr. Jenkins to say, he was
far inferior to the person who was removed in order to
make a place for him.

Mr. Henry was so deeply disgusted at the transaction,
that, at the moment of his removal, he resolved never
again to accept of any ^,ffice, but devote himself entirely
to the practice of his profession. That resolution he
religiously kept to the end of his life. By his industry
and talent he established a professional reputation, in my
judgment, infinitely more valuable than any merely politi-
cal, or rather partizan, reputation which has been achieved
in tliis state. The council, probably in order further to
afford a ilemonstralion of what their future course would
be, removed Thomas Mumfoid from the paltry office of

OF NEW- YORK. 175

master in chancery and John Richardson from the office
of judge of the court of common pleas for the county of
Cayuga. As these removals were wholly without any
other cause than that the incumbents entertained political
opinions different from the majority of the council, Gov.
Clinton caused his protest against them to be entered on
the journals of the council. In other cases of removals
the governor refused to sign the minutes of the proceed-
ings of the council. Thus it appears that, although Gov.
Clinton had been the great object of attack of the federa-
lists, the target to which their most envenomed arrows
had, for years gone by been directed, so firmly had the
principles of the right and duty of every freeman to form
and express his own opinions of public men and measures
become fixed in his mind during the revolutionary struggle,
that this venerable patriot could not bring his conscience
to consent that any of his fellow-citizens through his agen-
cy, or even by his tacit acquiescence, should be subjected
to any loss on account of the frank, open and independent
exercise of such right.

At the next meeting of the council, which was on the
11th of August, Cadwallader D. Colden, a man highly
esteemed for his talents and private virtues, and a descen-
dant from the colonial lieutenant governor of that name,
was removed from the office of district attorney, and
Richard Riker appointed in his place; Robert Benson
was removed from the office of clerk of the city of New-
York, and Tennis Wortman, a young man of talents, but
of irregular habits, was appointed his successor j Richard
Hamson, a celebrated and learned lawyer, was removed
from the office of recorder, and John B. Prevost appoint-
ed; John McKisson was appointed clerk of the circuit,
and William Coleman was removed to make place for
him. Mr. Coleman was then a young man, (a native of
Massachusetts,) of very respectable attainments as a scho-

176 POLITICAL HISTORY.

lar and considerable talents as a political writer. After
his removal Mr. Coleman established, under the patronage
of Gen. Hamilton, the newspaper called the Evening Post,
of which he, (Mr. C.,) continued the sole editor until his
death. The Evening Post was considered the organ of
Gen. Hamilton's political views, and I presume generally-
promulgated his sentiments. On the same day Conrad E.
Elmendorf and Thomas R. Gold, the latter gentleman
being a senator from the western district and an eminent
lawyer, were removed from the office of district attorney,
and Smith Thompson aud Nathan Williams were appoint-
ed in their places.

During the succeeding sessions of this council various
removals were made of clerks of counties, sheriffs and
other county officers. Among other county clerks who
were removed, Ebenezer Foote of the county of Delaware,
was removed from the clerkship of that county. Mr.
Foote was a federalist of considerable standing and influ-
ence. He had been a senator from the middle district,
and in the year 1797, when Mr. Spencer was a member
of the council, was appointed, and as Mr. F. alleged, was
warmly supported by Mr. S. Much complaint was made
about this removal, and a writer in the Albany Register
under the signature of a Friend to Justice in justification
of the removal charged Foote with official mal-conduct.
This led to a correspondence between Foote and Spencer,
which appeared in the party newspapers of the day, and
was afterwards published in a pamphlet form by Mr.
Foote. Mr. Philip Gebhard was the successor of Mr.
Foote. Previous to the action of the council a personal
controversy had occurred between these men, in the course
of which Mr. Gebhard's name had been struck from the
roll of attorneys of the Delaware common pleas. It was
charged by the Friend to Justice that Foote had taken a very
ictive part and had used unjustifiable means to cause Geb-

OF NEW- YORK. 177

hard to be expelled from the Delaware bar. Mr. Foote, in
his first publication, denies these charges. He alleges that
Mr. Spencer was their author, and charges him with base
and unworthy conduct as a public man and a member of
the council. To this Mr. Spencer replied that he had no
knowledge of the production of the " Friend of Justice,"
till he §aw it in print, and that his reasons for voting for
Mr. F's removal were different from those assigned by the
Friend of Justice. In speaking of Mr. Foote's removal,
Mr. Spencer says, " It was an act of justice to the public,
inasmuch as in removing you, the veriest hypocrite and
the most malignant villain in the state, w^as deprived of
the power of perpetrating mischief." He adds, in his
own peculiar style of severity and sarcasm, " If, as you
insinuate, your interests have by your removal been mate-
rially affected, then, sir, like many men more honest than
yourself J earn your bread by the sweat of your brow."

To this Mr. Foote replied, giving, or claiming to give,
a sketch of Mr. Spencer's political life, charging him with
being an applicant, in 1797, for the office of comptroller,
and offering to prove it if he, [Mr. Spencer,] would ab-
solve Thomas Morris from all honorary obligations to
keep secret his knowledge of the application. Mr. Spen-
cer replied, and denied that he was a candidate for the
office of comptroller, and he called for proof of the charge.
He further stated, " To facilitate you in your enquiry I
absolve the whole world from injunctions of secresy and
the restraints of delicacy on the subject."

This correspondence deserves notice only for the reason
that it affords evidence of the style and manner in which
political controversies were at that day conducted; and as
furnishing proof that Judge Spencer was not a candidate
for the office of comptroller at any time before he aban-
doned the federal party. This proof is important because
Judge Spencer is still charged, (and perhaps some believe

178 POLITICAL HISTORY

the charge,) with having deserted the federal parly from
feelings of resentment growing out of the refusal of Gov.
Jay to nominate him to the office of comptroller. If the
charge had been true, the fact must have been known at
the date of this correspondence, and after this public defi-
ance to highly excited opponents, is not their failure to
produce any proofs of its truth decisive evidence that none
existed, and that the allegation was false 1

By the twenty-eighth article of the constitution of 1777,
it was required that " new commissions should be issued
to judges of the county courts other than the first judge,
and to justices of the peace, once at the least in three years."
When this new commission came into the county and was
promulgated, all judges and justices of the peace whose
names were not included in it were superseded of course.
As all offices, excepting those particularly specified, were
declared by this same article to be held during the plea-
sure of the council of appointment, it was holden that new
commissions might issue at the pleasure of the appointing
power at any time short of three years, with the same
effect as if issued at ihe expiration of three years from the
time of issuing the last commission. In pursuance of
this construction, the present council, and whenever the
political power changed from one party to the other, all
subsequent councils, issued new commissions to most of
the counties in the state. The consequence was, that by
the leaving out of the new commissions federal judges and
justices, and inserting the names of republicans in their
places, the political power and influence of the council
was carried into almost every neighborhood in the state.
The tendency of this practice was to produce an impres-
sion among all ranks of people that men were to be pun-
ished or rewarded for their political opinions according to
their standing and influence in society, and more especially
at the polls of the election. The efl'ect naturally was to

OF NEW-yORK. 179

create a corps of electioneerers in every township in the
state, under the name of justices of the peace, and thus
judicial officers, who of all others ought to be entirely re-
moved from party bias, were made the most active and
zealous combatants in ihe political arena.

Chancellor Livingston had become incompetent by age
longer to hold his office, of which he advised the governor;
and John Lansing, jr., chief justice of the supreme court,
was thereupon appointed chancellor. Mr. Livingston was
soon after appointed minister to France, and terminated a
brilliant and useful public life by a successful mission
abroad, in which he had the good fortune, at a compara-
tively trifling expense, to negotiate the acquisition of the
extensive and rich territory of Louisiana to the United
States, and secure forever peaceable and convenient access
to the ocean to our fellow-citizens, located, or to be loca
ted, in the vallies of the Mississippi and Ohio, and the
great and almost interminable and fertile plains of the
■west.

Judge Benson had been appointed, under what was called
the midnight Act of John Adams, a circuit judge of the
United States, on the 3d March, 1801, and had of course
resigned his office as judge of the supreme court of this
state. This resignation, and the appointment of chief
justice Lansing, chancellor, caused two vacancies on the
bench of the supreme court. These vacancies were not
supplied by new appointments until several months after
they happened, and loud complaints of delay were made.
The particular cause of this delay does not appear, but the
federalists publicly charged Mr. Clinton and Mr. Spencer
with a design to appropriate those offices to themselves.
It is possible that Mr. Spencer may have desired a judicial
appointment, but the previous as well as subsequent course
of Mr. Clinton's life affords decisive evidence that the
suspicion, as to him, was not well founded. But before

180 POLITICAL HISTORY

the expiration of the year after this council commenced
acting, they appointed Morgan Lewis chief justice, and
Brockholst Livingston and Smith Thompson judges of the
supreme court.

In reviewing the appointments made by this council it
will be perceived that not a single appointment of the
least importance was conferred on the known friends of
Col. Burr. In the city of New-York the persons selected to
fill the offices seem generally to have been the personal as
well as political friends of Mr. Clinton; but of the great
state offices the Livingstons had much the greatest share.
If there was an implied or express understanding that the
offices should be divided according to the wishes of the
Clintons and Livingstons, the Livingstons certainly took
the lion's part. Chancellor Livingston was undoubtedly
by the aid and influence of Gov. Clinton appointed on a
foreign embassy; at any rate it is reasonable to infer he
would not have received the appointment had Mr. Clinton
been opposed to him. Edward Livingston was made
mayor of New- York, an office at that time probably worth
ten thousand dollars per annum; Doct. Tillotson, a bro-
ther-in-law of the chancellor, was created secretary of
state; Morgan Lewis, connected by marriage with the
family, was elevated to the office of chief justice of the
supreme court; Gen. Armstrong, who was in the same
way connected with the Livingstons, was appointed by
the legislature, a short time before, United States senator,
and Brockholst Livingston and Smith Thompson, whose
wife was a Livingston, were created judges of the supreme
court. It is nevertheless but an act of simple justice, in
this place to add, that the gentlemen belonging to the
Livingston family who received these appointments were
all of them men of high character for talents, and in all
respects well fitted for the offices to which they were
respectively appointed, Edward Livingston was not only

OF NEW-YORK. 18 1

competent to execute properly the duties pertaining to the
mayoralty, but all will now a^lmit that his talents qualified
him for any office within the control of the people of the
state or nation. The reports of the supreme court of this
state are enduring monuments of the learning and abilities
of both Brockholst Livingston and Smith Thompson. As
a man of genius Livingston was unquestionably the supe-
rior of Thompson J but for legal acumen, clearness of per-
ception, and logical powers of mind, there are few if any
men, in this or any other country, who excel Judge
Thompson.

The legislature met at Albany, Jan. 26, 1S02. Thom-
as Storm of the city of New-York w^as chosen speaker of
the assembly.

Nothing remarkable was contained in the governor's
speech, but like all the communications of George Clinton
it presented in a very brief form the general condition of
the state, accompanied with suitable and judicious remarks
on the various subjects of legislation, w^hich in the judg-
ment of the governor demanded the attention and action
of the legislature.

On the third of February the assembly elected a council
of appointment for the ensuing year. It consisted of
Benjamin Hunting from the southern, James W Wilkin
from the middle, Edward Savage from the eastern, and
Lemuel Chipman from the western district. Josiah Ogden
Hoffman had, for a long time, held the office of attorney
general, and on referring to the removals and appointments
by the preceding council it will be perceived that although
the secretary of state, comptroller, &c., were removed,
Mr. Hoffman was not disturbed in the enjoyment of his
office, notwithstanding he had distinguished himself as one
of the most active and zealous federalists.

The following facts will account for the forbearance of
the council of 1801 towards Mr. Hoffiman.

i82 POLITICAL HISTORY

When Mr. Spencer was a member of the federal council
in 1797, an attempt was made, probably on the suggestion
of Gov. Jay, or possibly by some of the friends of Mr.
Jones or Mr. Kenry, to pass a resolution and enter the
same on the minutes of the council, that it was improper
for any person while a member of the council of appoint-
ment to receive an office from that body. Mr. Spencer
opposed the adoption of that resolution, and in one of his
letters to Mr. Foote, to which I have above referred, he
assigns the reasons of his opposition. He, no doubt, had
fixed his eye upon the office of attorney general, while he
was a member of the council in 1801; but as the propriety
of a councillor's receiving an office from a body of which
he himself constituted a fifth part had been so recently a
subject of public discussion, Mr. S, no doubt felt that it
would be indelicate for him to receive the office in ques-
tion until another council should be chosen; and it is more
than probable that an understanding existed between Mr.
Hoffman and Mr. Spencer, that as soon as a new council
should be formed, if that council should be republican,
Mr. Hoffinan should resign his office. Accordingly, at the
first meeting of the council of 1802, Mr. Hotfman resigned
the office of attorney general, and Mr. Spencer was ap-
pointed in his place. \SeeJVoteJi, end of Vol. 2. |

William Stewart of Tioga county, a brother-in-law of
Got. Clinton, who had been removed from the office of
district attorney of the counties of Ontario, Tioga, &c., by
a federal council, under the administration of Gov. Jay,
was, on the same day, restored to that office, which was
vacated by the resignation of Mr. Nathaniel W. Howell of
Canandaigua.

Very few other appointments of any importance were
made by this council. They, however, appear to have
pursued the policy of their immediate predecessors by
filling the offices which became vacant exclusively with

OF NEW-YOKK. 183

men of their own party; and in the general commissions
of the peace which they sent into several counties, they left
off all the federal judges and justices of the peace whom
they with decency could, and supplied their places by re-
publicans.

Under the constitution, as amended, the assembly was
to consist of one hundred members, and an apportionment
was made by a law of this session giving each county its
share of representation in that branch of the legislature in
proportion to its population; but no other law of any
importance, at least politically, was passed during this
session. Mr. Clinton introduced a resolution proposing
an amendment to the United States constitution, so that
each state should be divided into districts, and the people
of each district should choose one elector of president and
vice-president, and also requiring the electors to designate
on their ballot which candidate they voted for, for presi-
dent and whichfor vice-president. These resolutions were
adopted.

At the commencement of the session Gen. John Arm-
strong resigned his seat in the senate of the United States,
and on the 9th of February De Witt Clinton was chosen
to supply his place. Mr. Clinton was nominated by the
assembly, and a federalist was nominated by the senate;
but at a meeting of the two houses, on joint ballot Mr.
Clinton received eighty-two votes and his opponent forty-
five. In the controversy which occurred the succeeding
summer, between Mr. Clinton and Col. Burr and his
friends, the latter charged the former with much manceu-
vering and bargaining in order to procure the resignation
of Gen. Armstrong and the election of Mr. Clinton, The
writers in the interest of Mr. Burr, affirmed that the ap-
pointment of Doct. Tillotson as secretary of state, was
made on the condition that he should procure the resigna-
tion of Gen. Armstrong; but these allegations are entirely

184 POLITICAL HISTORY

void of any shadow of proof. Gen. Armstrong was not
the man who would permit himself to be made an article
of political merchandise or traffic, and the office of a sena-
tor of the United States being for any cause vacant, who
is the man at that day who would have been more likely,
without factitious aid, to receive the support of the majo-
rity of the republican members of the legislature than De
Witt Clinton ?

The legislature adjourned on the second day of April.

The result of the spring election w'as decidedly favora-
ble to the republican party. In the assembly a large
majority of democratic members were returned, and all the
senators chosen that spring were republicans.

John Schenck was elected, from the southern; Solomon
Sutherland and Abraham Adriancc from the middle, and
Jacob Snell, Matthias B. Talmadge, Asa Danforth, Joseph
Annin and George Tiffany from the western district.
The eastern district, under the new arrangement, was not
entitled to elect any senators this year.

POLITICAL HISTORY 186

CHAPTER VII.

FROM MAY \, 1802, TO MAY 1, 1803.

Immediately after the result of the election was known,
the war between Aaron Burr and his partizans, and the
Clintons and Livingstons, the materials for which had
for a long time been gathering, burst forth and was car-
ried on with extreme asperity and bitterness.

A daily paper had been established in New-York, call-
ed the American Citizen, which was considered the organ
of the majority of the democratic party; but was under-
stood to be more especially under the influence of De
Witt Clinton. That paper first broke ground against Col.
Burr, and openly and bitterly denounced him as a traitor
to the republican cause, and in proof of his treachery, it
charged him with intriguing with the federalists to defeat
the election of Mr. Jefferson, and through their aid place
himself in the presidential chair. James Cheetham, an
Englishman by birth, a man of wit and great talents as a
periodical writer, but as a political writer sometimes too
regardless of truth, was the senior editor and conductor
of this paper.

On the other hand, Col. Burr and his friends established
a paper in New-York, denominated the Morning Chroni-
cle, of which Dr. Irving was the editor, which was the
antagonist of the American Citizen. Mr. Irving, who
was a man of respectable literary attainments, did not
seem so well qualified for that kind of cut and thrust war-
fare which then was, and now is, too much the fashion of
the day, as Mr. Cheetham. The Morning Chronicle,
however, carried the war into the camp of the opponents
of Mr. Burr, charging the Clintons and Livingstons with

186 POLITICAL HISTORY

inordinate personal ambition, with exercising an unwar
rantable and dictatorial power over the democratic party,
and with having appropriated an unreasonable por-
tion of the spoils of victory to their own immediate use.
It affirmed that the conduct of Col. Burr had been cor-
rect and honorable, and that the opposition to him was
produced by a desire to get rid of him, in order to bring
forward some member of the Clinton or Livingston fami-
ly as the prominent favorite of the democracy of the
north, for the high office which Burr then held, and ulti-
mately for the first office in the nation. The controversy
was conducted, as I have remarked, with extreme asperi-
ty, and the leaders of the two sections of the republicans
became personally hostile to each other; so much so that
social intercourse was broken off between them, and even
pecuniary transactions were affected and controlled by their
political prejudices and animosities. The Manhattan
Bank, we have seen, was owned and controlled by the
republicans of New-York, and the power of that institu-
tion was now wielded against the Burrites. Col. Burr
and his w^arm personal and political friend. Col, John
Swartwout, were turned out of the direction of that
bank after a sharply contested election. Judge Brock-
hoist Livingston was chosen a director to the exclusion
of Mr. Swartwout. The language used by gentlemen in
speaking of each other, was rude and offensive. Mr. De
Witt Clinton, in a conversation relating to Mr. Swart-
wout, called him a ^^ a liar ^ a scoundrel and a villain?''
And here I may remark, that one defect in Mr. Clinton's
character as a public man, and indeed as a private citizen,
was that he was too reckless in his remarks about gentle-
men who differed with him in political opinions. He was
too apt to treat and speak of every man who opposed
his political views as dishonest, or wholly Incompetent
to judge between right and wrong. It is singular that

OF NEW-YORK. 187

his long experience as a politician, and his extensive ac-
quaintance with men, did not more effectually convince
him that it was not true that every man who did not ac-
cord with him in sentiment was either a knave or a fool.
Mr. Swartwout was a generous and brave man, ardent
in his friendships, and equally heated against those he
chose to consider as his enemies. He was passionately de-
voted to Col. Burr, but like most of Burr's adherents, too
careless about the means used for the accomplishment of
political ends. The offensive language of Mr. Clinton in
respect to Col. Swartwout, which I have quoted, induced
the latter gentleman to demand through his friend Col.
Smith, an apology or recantation from Mr. Clinton. Mr.
C. replied that Swartwout had charged him with opposing
Col. Burr from unworthy and selfish motives, that he had
applied the epithets to Mr. Swartwout in reference to that
charge, and that if Swartwout would retract his charge,
he (Mr. C.) would apologize for, or take back the offensive
expressions. This Swartwout refused to do. A duel was
the consequence. Five shots were exchanged, and Mr.
Swartwout was twice wounded, notwithstanding which he
expressed his desire to continue the fight. Mr. Clinton
declared that he was shooting at a man against whom he
felt no personal enmity, and the surgeons finally interfered
and declared that the situation o^ "Mr. Swartwout was
such as rendered it improper that the contest should be
continued.*

* Mr. John C. Hamilton, in the second volume of the Biography of his Father,
p, 276, after speaking of a pamphlet, written by Gen. Hamilton, recommending
mild and lenient treatment towards the tories of the revolution, and of the effect
that pamphlet had on the public mind in allaying the persecuting spirit >vhich ex
isted among the whigs against that class of people says, " that the pamphlet and
its effects excited bitter animosity against the General among a portion of the
citizens of New-Yorlc; and he states that "there existed at this time an even
ing club, composed of persons conspicuous in the prosecution of these attain-
ders," (of disaffected persons,) " some of whom had written in opposition to
Phocion, (the signature assumed by Gen. Hamilton,) and who felt themselves the
deserved objects of its just denunciation !"

"Early in the evening of this meeting, it was proposed that Hamilton should

188 POLITICAL HISTORY

About this time Mr. Cheetham published a pamphlet
entitled "Mview of the political conduct of Aaron Burr,^
in which he professed to give a history of his political
conduct, from the time of his first entrance into public life
down to the time when the pamphlet was written. It was
written with great tact, and although evidently too bold
in its denunciations and too reckless in assuming charges
proved which rested upon slight circumstantial evidence,
there seems, in my judgment, enough contained in it to
lead the mind fairly to the conclusion that Col. Burr was
a trimmer in politics, and an unsafe man to be entrusted
with an important office. Shortly afterwards a pamphlet
appeared to which the fictitious signature of Aristides was
affixed. This pamphlet attacked with unprecedented se-
verity the public and private character of nearly all the
distinguished men of the republican party. Doct. Tillot-
son and Judge Livingston, and indeed the whole Living-
ston family, were assailed with great bitterness. Their
motives were arraigned and impeached, and their private
character for honor and veracity was traduced and villified.
The writer alleges the governing maxim of the Livingston
family to be —

" Rem, facias rem,

Si possis recte, si non, quoque modo, rem."

But the vials of his\vrath, the dregs of his gall and bitter-
ness, seem to have been reserved to be poured on the
heads of De "VVitt Clinton and Ambrose Spencer. He

be challenged, and in case the first challenger should fall that others should chal-
lenge him in succession," until some one should lake his life.

This barbarous plot was defeated by the opposition of Mr. Ledyard, who was
one of the writers whom Hamilton had attacked, who came in in time to break
up this savage combination.

Suspicions were entertained by the opponents of Col. Burr, that some such
combination had been formed by the Burrites in relation to Mr. Clinton and his
leading friends. A subsequent challenge and duel with Richard Riker favored
this suspicion; but no man who is acquainted with the frank and open hearted
John Swartwout can for one moment tolerate the idea that he was a party to
£ucb a combinatipn.

OF NEW- YORK. 189

charges them with every thing vile, every thing mean and
malignant. William P. Van Ness is now the admitted
author of this production. It, is written with great talent.
As a political writer, its style renders Mr. Van Ness un-
rivalled since the days of Junius; and yet, every sentence
and line of it seems to have been written with such intense
hate and malice boiling in his bosom, that no man who
possesses the least portion of the milk of human kindness
would consent to enjoy the reputation for genius and ta-
lent, to which the author is entitled, if the possession of
that reputation must of necessity be connected with the
evidence which this pamphlet affords of the extreme ma-
lignity of the heart of the writer.

There can be no doubt but that both parties to this
controversy, in their speeches and writings, did injustice
to the adverse party, and it would be unsafe implicitly to
rely even on the statement of facts by either. Honorable
men, under high party excitement, will distort and disco-
lor facts in their statements, so that it will be often diffi-^
cult for a disinterested person to arrive at a correct conclu
sion. Lady Betty Germain was right when she said, " I
have lived long enough never wholly to believe any side
or party against the other." There were, however, a
combination of facts and circumstances connected with the
last presidential election, as we have heretofore seen^
which could neither be denied nor satisfactorily explained;
and which rendered it impossible for candid men to avoid
coming to the conclusion that Col. Burr had not conducted
with good faith towards his political friends. There is
no vice or frailty to which man is liable which excites
more abhorrence in a generous mind than treachery towards
friends. We can forgive an open enemy who has injured
us; we can sometimes admire his energy, his enterprise,
and his spirit, even when his efforts are exerted against
ourselves, but we cannot avoid despising as well as detest-^

190 POLITICAL HISTORY

ing the traitor. But the republican press, out of the city
of New-Yorkj for a long time declined interfering in this
controversy, and it was not until the 16th of November
that the Albany Register came out openly against Mr.
Burr. The editor of that paper, (Mr. Barber,) a very
upright and honest man, then declared that he had for a
long time hesitated, but that the evidence of Col. Burr's
tergiversations had so multiplied upon him that he could
no longer resist the conclusion that Mr. B. had forfeited
the confidence of the republican party. Nearly all the
democratic newspapers followed in the wake of the Alba-
ny Register.

The legislature convened on the 24Lh January, 1803.
When the members came together it was soon ascertained
that an immense majority of the republicans disapproved
of the conduct of Col. Burr, and that he no longer pos-
sessed their confidence. Thomas Storm was re-elected
speaker, and Solomon Southwick was chosen clerk in
opposition to Mr. Van Ingen, a federalist who had long
been the clerk of the assembly. The vote stood forty-
two for Southwick and thirty-one for Van Ingen. This,
however, was not a true criterion of the strength of parties;
for shortly afterwards a question was taken in the house
on the answer to the governor's speech, when it appeared
there were but twenty federalists in that branch of the
legislature; at any rate there were but twenty who voted.
Mr. Southwick was the brother-in-law of Mr. Barber, the
proprietor and the editor of the Albany Register, and
connected with him in the printing and management of
that paper. Mr. S. was then a young man, elegant and
prepossessing in his personal appearance, of ardent feel-
ings and fascinating manners. He was a most zealous
democrat. His intercourse with his acquaintance was
frank and cordial. He was warm in his friendships, and
magnanimous and generous to his enemies. These quali-

OF NEW-YORK. 191

ties soon procured him a powerful influence with the
members of the legislature, and the republican party in
general.

It became necessary during this session to elect a sena-
tor of the United States, in lieu of Governeur Morris
whose term of service expired on the 4th of March, 1803.
The prominent republican candidates for that office were
Gen. Theodorus Bailey, then of Dutchess county, and Mr.
John Woodworth of Rensselaer county, afterwards attor-
ney general, and lately a judge of the supreme court.
The election was to take place on the first day of Feb-
ruary; and on the evening preceding, a caucus of the
republican members was held, at which, upon a ballot, Mr.
Bailey had thirty votes and Mr. Woodworth forty-five,
who, of course, was declared duly nominated. Matthias
B. Talmadge, a senator and brother-in-law to Gen. Bailey,
was dissatisfied with this nomination, and set himself at
work to defeat the election of Mr. Woodworth. He
persuaded several of the democratic senators, chiefly those
coming from the southern part of the state, and some of the
members of assembly, of whom Mr. James Burt of Orange
county was the most active, to abandon the caucus nomi-
nation and agree to vote for Gen. Bailey; but a suflficient
number of members of assembly could not be dissuaded
from the regular usage of their party to prevent the nomi-
nation in that house of Mr. Woodworth; for the next day,
in the assembly, Mr. Bailey had nineteen votes, Mr. Morris
eighteen and Mr. Woodworth fifty-three, and he was of
course nominated. In the senate, where the federalists
were stronger in proportion than they were in the assem-
bly, a communication was opened with them, and Mr.
Van Vechten got up a federal caucus on the morning of
the first of February, and before the hour of meeting for
the senate had arrived, at which it was agreed ultimately
to support Gen. Bailey.

192 POLITICAL HISTOKY

When llie senate came to act on llie nomination of an
United States senator the federalists all voted for Gover-
neur Morris, Eind a few of the republicans voted for Mr.
Bailey, leaving a minority vote for Woodworth. A reso-
lution was then offered, that Mr. Bailey be declared nomi-
nated on the part of the senate, and carried by the follow-
ing vote: — Adriance, Bruyn, Chipman, FootCj Gordon,
Hatfield, Hathorn, Hitchcock, Hunting, Kent, L'Home-
d'].eu,Lawyer, Suffern,Talmadge,Fa7i Schoonhoven and Fa;i-
Vechten. Those whose names are in italics were federal-
ists. It will be perceived that Mr. Bailey was nominated
by the aid of six federal votes. When the two houses met
to compare nominations, Mr. Talmadge and his republican
friends of the senate, and Mr. Burt with his corps of nine-
teen in the assembly, voted with the federalists on joint
ballot, and the result was Mr. Woodworth had fifty-seven,
and Mr. Bailey fifty-nine votes, and he was declared duly
elected.

It is impossible to look upon this transaction without
disapprobation. I speak neither of the merits or demerits
of Gen. Bailey; for although, he was one of the members
of congress in 1800, whom Col. Burr had indicated as a
person who would eventually vote for him for president;
and although it has been alleged that he was persuaded to
decline the performance of his agreement with Burr, under a
promise of office from Mr. Jefferson, and that the New-
York post office was finally given to him in fulfilment
of that promise, I have reason to believe he was a respect-
able man — certainly he was an amiable member of society.
Yet I think that when political friends consent to go into
caucus for the nomination of officers, every member of such
caucus is bound in honor to support and carry into effect
its determination. If you suspect that that determina-
tion will be so preposterous that you cannot in conscience
support it, then you ought on no account to become one

IIIJ

hfc.

OF KEW-yORK. 193

of its members. To try your chance in a caucus, and
then because your wishes are not gratified, to attempt to
defeat the result of the deliberation of your friends,
strikes me as a palpable violation of honor and good faith.
You caucus for no other possible purpose than undar the
implied agreement, that the opinion and wishes of the
minority shall be yielded to the opinions of the majority
and the sole object of caucussing is to ascertain what
is the will of the majority. I repeat, that unless you in-
tend to carry into effect the wishes of the majority, how-
ever contrary to your own, you have no business at a
caucus.

During this session, it was ascertained that the treasurer,
Mr. McClanan, had become a defaulter in more than
thirty-three thousand dollars. It would seem from Mr.

's statement which I have barely once casually and
hastily read, that he was m arrears with his creditors
when he was appointed; and that, pressed by their impor-
tunities he had applied some of the funds of the state to
satisfy those arrears. There was a sharp contest for the
office of treasurer when Mr. McClanan was appointed,
and if his statement be correct, is it not probable that
some of his creditors may have urged his appointment in
the hope of realizing their debts rightly if they could, if
not rightly, that at any rate they would realize them?

Upon the discovery of this defalcation, the legislature
appointed Abraham G. Lansing, brother of the chancel-
lor, a man of wealth and high character for integrity and
correct business habits, treasurer. They a'so by the same
law enacted that the treasurer should keep his accounts in
banks separate from his private accounts, that he should
forthwith deposit all monies he should receive in the
Bank of Albany, that he should exhibit his bank book
once a month to the comptroller, who, if he discovered

any errors or irregularities, was required to report the

13

194 POLITICAL HISTORY

same to the governor, who was authorized and requirea
immediately by proclamation to suspend the functions of
the treasurer, and from that moment the duties of the
treasurer devolved on the president and directors of the
Bank of Albany. This act was passed on the 8th day of
February.

On the 19th of March, a law was passed chartering the
New-York State Bank. I shall, however, in pursuance
of what I have before intimated, omit any account of the
proceedings of the legislature on this subject till I come
to the year 1812, when the Bank of America was incor-
porated, other than to remark, that a new and very excep-
tionable ground was taken by the petitioners for this
charter, in support of their application. There* were then
but three banks north and west of the city of New-York- .
These were the Bank of Columbia at Hudson, the Farm-
er's Bank between Lansingburgh and Troy, and the Bank
of Albany in the city of Albany. It was said, and no
doubt said truly, that the stock of these banks was prin-
cipally owned by federalists. A large majority of the
petitioners for the State Bank, claimed to be republicans;
they therefore asked for a charter upon party grounds, as
a political measure, upon the assumed principle, that the
bank, if chartered, was to be a republican bank! How
supremely absurd was this pretence! They might as well
have talked of republican wheat or corn, of republican
air and water, as of republican money or a republican
bank.

The April election this year, resulted in the complete
triumph of the democratic party, not only in this state but
in almost every other state in the union. Mr. Jefferson
was a southern man, and local feelings and personal pre-
dilections secured him the unanimous support of the south.
The northern and middle states were relieved from inter-
nal taxes, the army was principally disbanded, the odious

OF NEW- YORK. 195

sedition law was abolished, and all men could speak and
write what they pleased, — a privilege of inestimable value
to the talking and scribbling eastern and northern people, —
Mr. Jay's treaty had secured a peace with England, and
with France we were on good terms, a considerable por-
tion of the transportation of the merchandize of Europe
was carried on by American vessels almost exclusively
owned by citizens of the eastern, northcn and middle
states, the bread stuffs produced in those states were in
great demand in Europe to feed the countless legions of
soldiers which the nations of the old world then had in
the field, wheat was at the enormous price of from two
to three dollars per bushel, national and bank stocks
were steadily rising in value, and the great revolutionary
national debt was in a rapid progress of extinguishmentj
under such circumstances of unprecedented prosperity, it is
not at all surprising that the people should have been con-
tented and happy, and should have clung to that adminis-
tration which apparently secured to them such high ad-
vantages over any other nation on the globe.

John Broome, (afterwards lieutenant governor,) was
elected senator from the southern district, Robert Johnson,
Joshua H. Brett, and James Burt from the middle, John
Tayler, John Woodworth, Edward Savage, Simon Veeder,
and Thomas Treadwell from the eastern, and Caleb Hyde
from the western district, all republicans. The aggre-
gate vote of the freeholders of the state gave the demo-
cratic ticket a majority of eight thousand five hundred
and eighty-eight. In the assembly eighty-three republi-
cans were elected and but seventeen federalists.

In detailing the proceedings of the legislature during
the winter of 1803, I have omitted to mention that the
assembly chose Ebenezer Purdy of the southern, John C.
Hogeboom of the middle, Jacobus Van Schoonhoven of

196 POLITICAL HISTORY

the eastern and Jacob Snell of the western districts mem-
bers of the council of appointment.

I cannot write the name of John C. Hogeboom with
out recording my testimony to the goodness of his heart
and the energy and vigor of his intellectual powers. He
was a native of Columbia county, where he died. His
education had been limited, but ■ he was one of na-
ture's great men, possessing a sound judgment and clear
and discriminating mental faculties. Ardent and inde-
fatigable in advancing the interests and wishes of his
friendsj he was courteous and liberal towards his political
opponents. He lived esteemed and respected, and died
bitterly lamented by all, and especially by those who had
the happiness of knowing him.

No important appointments were made by the council
during the winter.

OF NEW-YORK. 197

CHAPTER VIII.

FROM MAY, 1803, TO MAY, 1804.

In the summer of 1803, Mr. Edward Livingston, who
Aad been appointed United States attorney for the district
of New-York, resigned the office of mayor of that city.
The mayor at that time possessed much more power and
greater patronage than at present, and the office, both on
account of its dignity and emoluments, was sought for by
men of high standing and character. Morgan Lewis then,
as we have seen, chief justice of the supreme court, was
a candidate, as also De Witt Clinton, at that time a sena-
tor of the United States. The office was not filled by the
council for a considerable period after it had been vacated,
and even Mr. Edward Livingston, although he had re-
signed it as incompatible with the performance of his
duties as United States attorney, it is said manifested a
desire to be re-appointed; but Mr. De Witt Clinton was
appointed the successor of Mr. Livingston. The accep-
tance of this office rendered it necessary for Mr. Clinton
to vacate his seat in the senate of the United States, and
accordingly he soon after resigned that station.

The political prospects of Mr. Clinton were, at that
time, justly considered equal if not superior to any man
of his age in the state of New-York, and perhaps it may
oe added, in the northern states. He has been charged
"with being governed by a vaulting ambition, and there
can be no doubt that from the commencement of his public
career, his aspirations were of a character high and exalt-
ed. So lofty was his aim and mark, that whoever knew
him will bear me out in the remark, that it was always
inconsonant to his disposition to act in a capacity subordi-

198 POLITICAL HISTORY.

nate to any man. I mention these traits in his character
for the purpose of justifying me in alleging that it is more
than probable that at this time he entertained views of
attaining the presidency of the United States. If, then,
such were his views, and he was at this period actually
aiming at that high object, then, I affirm, as a politician,
seeking by fair and honorable means to accomplish this
great end, he was guilty of an error; and so far as I can
perceive, his first error in respect to his own political for-
tunes, in resigning his seat in the senate of the United
States. He should not have left the service of the nation;
on the contrary he should, if in his power, have constantly
kept himself before the American people, in the service of
the United States. He had, during the short period he
was a member of the senate, taken an active part in the
deliberations and discussions of the senate, and had acquit-
ted himself in a creditable manner. He was the favorite
son of New-York. He was morally certain that the whole
popularity and weight of character of his venerable uncle,
then governor of the state, would be thrown into the scale
in his favor; and if at any time he should desire to aban-
don legislation, the influence of Gov. Clinton and the
whole republican party of the state w-as surely sufficient
to have secured him a seat in the national cabinet, or a
foreign embassy; "which, as I have before remarked, would
have kept him constantly before the American people.
All these advantages he gave up in order to come back to
the city of New^-York, thereby becoming a party in the
controversies of the bar-roOm politicians of that city, and
to the petty quarrels in the city and state of New- York
about the pitiful offices of masters in chancery, sheriffs,
clerks, county judges and justices of the peace. True,
he might have the momentary pleasure of disposing of
those appointments and enjoying the flattery which those
small and successful office-seekers might lavish upon him;

OF ^EW-YOllK. 19j9

but did it not occur to him that the unsuccesful candidates
for office would be more numerous than the successful
ones, and that the disappointed woukl remember the injury
they imagined done to them, longer than the appointed
would the favor conferred on them, by the person who
procured their appointment 1 Mr. Clinton lived long
enough to be convinced by sad and bitter experience that
such was in fact the nature of man. It may be urged that
his pecuniary circumstances required the perquisites of the
mayoralty; but such was not the fact. Although Mr. C.
received very little from his father, he had lately married
the daughter of Walter Franklin, a wealthy member of
the society of friends in New-York, by whom he received
a fortune of about forty thousand dollars in cash, or in
good investments. Mr, Clinton did not improvidently
expend money in an extravagant style of living. A
judicious investment of the fortune he received from his
wife would, together with what he would have received
for his services, even had he continued in the employment
of the national government, have afforded a sufficient
income to have enabled him to have lived decently without
iupairing his capital. In the end, his return to New-
York had a disastrous effect on his pecuniary concerns.
Young and enterprising business men without capital, but
anxious to engage in business, who were vigorous ajad
energetic supporters of the democratic party, looked to Mr,
Clinton to aid them with credit or cash, and enable them
to commence business, Mr. Clinton was, at that time, a
director in the Manhattan Bank, and paper which he
endorsed and recommended was sure to be discounted.
Anxious to patronise young men, and liberal to a fault,
Mr. Clinton lent his influence and name to all republican
young men in whose capacity he had confidence, and
whose habits he supposed to be good. There were many
failures^ some chargeable to the misfortunes incident to

200 POLITICAL HISTORY

commercial life, and some to misconduct and downright
knavery. To discharge the liabilities thus incurred, Mr.
Clinton was obliged to create large debts, which embar-
rassed and harrasscd him during his life. Amonff the
imperfections incident to humanity is one, which however
odious, always has existed and always will exist. It is
this: — When your neighbor has conferred on you an obli-
gation which you find it impossible to repay, it weighs
heavy on your r^ind; but if a man quarrels with his bene-
factor and declares him to be his enemy, then the vitiated
and distorted mind of the ingrate feels, or affects to feel,
that all previous obligations between him and his friend
are cancelledj and he fancies that the public no longer
expects that he shall do acts of kindness to one whom he
has declared his enemy. Hence cold and calculating
knaves will frequently seek a quarrel with the man who
has done them a kindness which they cannot or do not
wnsh to reciprocate, for the sole purpose of absolving
themselves, in their own opinion, from the obligation of
repaying past favors.

This detestable propensity in our nature, was afterwards
fully developed towards Mr. Clinton; and in the progress
of our enquiries we shall see nearly the whole host of
disappointed office-seekers and bankrupt makers of notes
which he had as endorser been compelled to pay, united
in a most vindictive and exterminating political war
against him.

In any aspect therefore, in which the question of the
policy of the withdrawal of Mr. Clinton from the political
theatre of Washington can be viewed, his decision was
indiscreet and unwise.

Gen. Bailey had scarcely taken his seat in the United
States senate when he was appointed post-master at the city
of Njvv-York. He therefore resigned the office of senator,
and the state was now wholly unrepresented in one branch

OF NEW-YORK. 201

of the national legislature. Early in the year 1804, Jacob
Radcliff resigned his office as judge of the supreme court,
I am ignorant of his reasons for resigning, but from his
subsequent conduct it is very evident that if he was dis-
gusted with the occupation of a public station at that
time, his taste for political life revived with great intense-
ness not long afterwards. On the 3d of Februai-y, Am-
brose Spencer, then attorney general, was elevated to the
bench of the supreme court, to supply the vacancy occa-
sioned by Judge RadcliS's resignation, and John Wood-
worth was appointed attorney general.

All parties, and especially the members of the bar,
highly venerated the talents and felt the most profound
respect for the legal learning and capacity of Judge
Spencer, but the federalists were alarmed lest his political
principles and partizan feelings should influence and bias his
judicial conduct. In this they were happily disappointed.
He discharged his official duties not only with great ability
but with undoubted integrity and rigid impartiality. I may
as well say in this place as any where, that although Judge
Spencer from the commencement of his professional and
political life, has at all periods of it, been an ardent and it
may be added, at sometimes a violent partizan, and his
conduct as such, may at times, have justly excited animad-
version; yet as a judge he was always able, always inde-
pendent, always impartial and always honest.

It is a somewhat singular coincidence that William W.
Van Ness, then a young lawyer, and a zealous federalist
of Columbia county, afterwards a judge of the supreme
court, was removed from the office of surrogate of the
county of Columbia, for political reasons, by the same
council at the same time that Mr. Spencer was appointed
a judge. Did either one or the other anticipate what
would be their official, social and political relations for
several years succeeding the year 1818? Politicians like

202 POLITICAL HISTORY

all other men are blind to the future, and it is perhaps
Avell that they are so.

The legislature met on the 31st day of January. Al
exander Sheldon of Montgomery county, was chosen
speaker, and Mr. Southwick was re-elected clerk. As
usual the governor's speech was short, but replete with
good sense. Among other things, he announced to them
the recent amendment of the United States constitution,
requiring the presidential electors to designate the candi-
dates voted for, for president and vice-president. He also
reminded the legislature that two senators of the United
States were to be chosen. The two houses immediately
proceeded to the choice of senators, and on the 2d Febru-
ary, John Armstrong and John Smith were elected with-
out much opposition.

On the 16th February, the assembly chose a council of
appointment, consisting of John Broome from the south-
ern, Abraham Adriance from the middle, Thomas Tread-
well from the eastern, and Caleb Hyde from the western
districts.

At Washington, as well as in the state of New-York,
all political confidence was withdrawn from Col. Burr, by
an immense majority of the republican party, and his
friends did not even attempt to procure his nomination
for vice president at the approaching presidentiul elec-
tion. The democratic party in the nation, with great
unanimity turned their attention to Gov. Clinton, and he
was nominated without opposition from any quarter.
The acceptance of that nomination by Gov. C. rendered it
necessary to select some other person as the republican
candidate for governor of the state of New-York, and
men began to cast about for a suitable person to be sup
ported for that office.

In the mean time Mr. Burr and his friends were not in-
active. The last annual election had exhibited so large a

OF NEW- YORK , 203

democratic majority in the state that the federalists had
not the least hope of success in the election of a go-
vernor, if they should attempt to support a candidate from
their own party. Under these circumstances the Burrites
concluded to bring out their chief in opposition to the
regular republican candidate, whoever he might be,-— in
the confident expectation that the federalists would gene-
rally cast their votes for him. I have before remarked
that this kind of political manceuvering is generally weak
and in most cases terminates in the prostration and ruin
of the actors in the drama. Col. Burr's prospects, how-
ever, seemed to assume an imposing aspect. His repub-
lican friends in the city of New-York, though not nume-
rous, were talented, industrious, active and indefatigable
in their exertions; and in almost all the counties in the
state some distinguished republicans declared themselves
in his favor. In Dutchess and Orange counties he had
considerable strength among the republicans. In Orange
he had heretofore been a favorite, having been elected
once a member of assembly, and afterwards a delegate to
the convention by the republicans of that county, although
he resided in the city of New- York. Jonathan Fisk,
George Gardner, David M. Wescott and Peter To wnsend,
efficient and influential democrats of that county, were
his zealous and active friends. Mr. Burt of the senate
was said to be inclined also to support Col. Burr. Gen
Erastus Root of Delaware, the bold and decided republi-
can of 1798, and a member of congress, was his avowed
friend. John Van Ness Yates of Albany, son of the late
chief justice, came out in his favor. At the west, Judge
Annin of the senate, and Oliver Phelps the great eastern
land speculator, then living in Ontario county, announced
themselves the friends of Col. Burr, and Peter B. Porter,
then a young man and clerk of Ontario county, was also
a Burrite.

204 POLITICAL HISTORY

The friends of Col. Burr jn the legislature, first broke
ground. A meeting was held at the Tontine Coffee
House in Albany, on the 18th of February, of which
William Tabor, a member of assembly from Dutchess
county, was chairman, and Joseph Annin of the senate
was secretary; at which Col. Burr was nominated for
governor. I have been unable to ascertain how many
members of the legislature were in attendance and took
part in the meeting. Their numbers, however, must have
been very small. This nomination was reiterated at a
meeting held in New-York on the 20th of February, of
which Col. Marinus Willet was chairman, and Ezekiel
Robins, secretary. Shortly afterwards, at a meeting of
citizens in Albany, the nomination of Burr for governor
■was concurred in, and Oliver Phelps of Ontario coun-
ty, was nominated for lieutenant governor.

Previous to the nomination of Col. Burr, a legislative
caucus of republican members was held in the assembly
chamber, of which Ebenezer Purdy was chairman, and S.
Southwick, secretary, when Chancellor Lansing w^as no-
minated for governor, and John Broome for lieutenant
governor. The chancellor in the first instance accepted
the nomination, but on the 18th day of February he ad-
dressed a letter to Mr. Purdy, the chairman, in which he
stated,, that he had reluctantly accepted the nomination, be-
cause it was represented to him that his acceptance w^ould
afford a point of union calculated to promote and procure
the ascendancy of republican principles, but said he
" subsequent events have induced me to believe that my
hopes on this subject were too sanguine." He therefore
declined to stand a candidate. What those " subsequent
events^'' were to which the chancellor alluded,! shall have
occasion to explain hereafter. On the 20th of February,
another republican caucus w^as held, at which Mr. Purdy
again presided. At this meeting, Morgan Lewis was

OF NEW-YORK. 205

nominated for governor, and Mr. Broome was again nomi-
nated for lieutenant governor. It would seem that the
nomination of Chief Justice Lewis was made with some
reluctance. At any rate he was evidently not the first
choice of the party. Probably some jealousy was then en-
tertained of the influence and power of the Livingston fami-
ly. Others it is said , doubted his fitness and capacity for the
proper discharge of the duties of the chief executive of the
state. The declension however, of Chancellor Lansing,
was a complete surprise to the party, and no other person
on that emergency could be fixed upon. Mr. Clinton was
quite young, and no doubt the Livingstons, and perhaps
some others, began to entertain some jealousy of his
rapidly increasing influence and power. Judge Spencer
had so recently been a decided and active federalist, that
it was doubtful whether all the republican freeholders
could be induced to vote for him. The time for delibera
tion was necessarily short. In this state of things Mr.
Lewis was selected, and his political friends three years
afterwards alledged that " his nomination was caused by
fortuitous circumstances." An address, however, was
drawn up in favor of his election, and signed by one
hundred and four members. This was certainly evidence
of great unanimity, as that number included all the mem-
bers of both houses save twenty-eight only. It will,
therefore, be seen that, including federalists as well as
Burrites, their whole number amounted to no more than
twenty-eight out of one hundred and thirty-two.

At the February term of the supreme court, a cause was
argued which highly excited the attention of the New-
York public, as well from the importance of the question
disputed, as the eminent standing and transcendent ability
of the council who took part in the argument.

Harry Croswell, the printer and editor of a leading fed-
eral paper called The Ballance, published at Hudson, had

206 POLITICAL HISTORY

attacked Mr. Jefferson with great severity. The grand
jury of the county of Columbia indicted him for a libel
The cause was tried by Spencer, attorney general, on the
part of the people, before chief justice Lewis. On the
trial Mr. Croswell offered to prove the trutJiof the charges
contained in the libel set out in the indictment; and the
court, in accordance with the English common law doc-
trine, rejected the evidence. The court further instructed
the jury that the only question for them to decide, was the
fact whether the alleged libel had been published by the
defendant, and that the question of libel or no libel was to
be determined exclusively bv the court. A motion was
made for a new trial, and was argued on the part of Mr.
Croswell by Wm. W. Van Ness, Harrison and Hamilton.
Gen. Hamilton, on this occasion, it is said, excelled all his
former efforts. He took a wide and entended range, and
^shewed that the maxim " the greater the truth the greater
the libel," was of modern date in England: that it was at
war with the genius of all our civil institutions, and mani-
festly a palpable outrage on human rights, common justice
and even common sense. The effect of his eloquence is
still remembered with enthusiasm by those who had the
good fortune to hear him. Alas, that it was destined to be
the last effort, at the scat of government of this state, of
that wonderful man.* The court, however, did not feel
at liberty to depart from what they deemed the fixed and
settled rule of common law; but the views presented by
Gen. Hamilton and his associate council, made such a

* A correspondent of the Evening Post, writing from Albany, after giving an
account of the speeches of Caines and Spencer for the prosecution, and Wm.W.Van
Ness and Harrison for the defendant, says :— "After all came the great, the pow-
erful Hamilton. No language can convey an adequate idea of the astonishing
powers evinced by him. The audience was numerous, and although composed
of those not " used to the melting mood," the effect produced on them was elec«
trio. * * * As a correct argument for a lawyer it was very imposing, as a pro-
fouod commentary upon the science and practice of government it has never been
stvpassed."

OF NEW-YORK. 207

strong impression on the public mind, that a movement
was soon after made in the legislature to pass a law au-
thorising the truth to be given in evidence, where the
matter written or printed was published from good and
justifiable motives, and constituting the jury in this, as in
all other criminal cases, judges of the law as well as the
fact.

A bill for this purpose was immediately brought into
the assembly by Mr. James Emmott, a federal member
from the county of Dutchess. By the terms of this bill,
as drawn by Mr. Emmott, the law proposed was made
declaratory. This phraseology was opposed, as implying
that such was then the common law, and as containing a
covert censure on the court which had decided the case
of Croswell. Other questions arose in proceeding on the
bill, relative to its details, and in consequence of those
disagreements the law of libels was not changed during
that session^ but in the following session, in 1805, the
subject was again brought before the legislature, and an
act was passed in conformity to the principles of the bill
introduced by Mr. Emmott, not, however, including the
word " declared.'''' Thus the law of libels was placed on
a true and correct foundation, perfectly consistent with
the liberty of the press and the protection of the good
name and reputation of every Individual citizen. The
principles of this statute were incorporated in the constitu-
tion of 1821. But it is time to return to the electioneer-
ing contest.

Had I observed accurately the order of time, I ought
to have mentioned that, after the nomination of Chancellor
Lansing, and before he finally declined, and while Gen.
Hamilton was in Albany, a consultation or caucus was
held by the leading federalists at Lewis's city tavern, for
the purpose of comparing opinions on the question whether
the federalists, as a party, ought to support Col. Burr

208 POLITICAL HISTORY

They intended that their deliberations should be secret
and confidential; but one or two Burrites were concealed
in a bed room adjoining the dining room where the fede-
ralists were assembled, and heard and reported what
passed in ihat assemblage, A correspondent of the
Morning Chronicle, under date of the 17th of February,
writes, that " last night the leading federal gentlemen in
this place had a meeting at the city tavern. Gen. Hamil-
ton addressed the meeting with his usual eloquence, and
pointed out the expediency of the federal party's voting
for Chancellor Lansing, in case they had no candidate of
their own. The principal part of his speech went to
show that no reliance ought to be placed on Mr. Burr."
Notwithstanding this opposition the great body of the
federalists manifested a determination to cast their votes
for Burr; and Gaylord Griswold, then a member of con-
gress from Herkimer county, wrote a letter which was
published, in which he urged his friends to support Mr.
Burr as the only means of breaking down the democratic
party, and charged the opposition of Gen. Hamilton to
" personal resentment towards Burr." This letter bore
date the 27th of February.

The contest terminated in the election of Judge Lewis
by a large majority; I believe about eight thousand.

Mr. Burr undoubtedly received a very considerable
number of republican votes; ne must have failed in conse-
quence of the defection of a portion of the federal party.
No doubt many federalists entertained an honest opinion
similar to that expressed by Gen. Hamilton, that Mr. Burr
was an unprincipled man, and that no reliance could be
placed on him. They, therefore, could not reconcile it
to their consciences to yield their aid to his support for
the first and most important office in the state. It is how-
ever probable that a larger portion of that party had be-
come convinced that the federalists, as a party, had no

OF NEW-YORK. 209

prospect of gaining a permanent ascendancy in the stale,
and especially in the nation; that, even if Burr should be
successful at that election, his triumph would be momen-
tary, and they therefore seized the occasion of abandoning
a broken down, and as they deemed, a ruined party. The
result of the canvass showed, on a comparison with the
senatorial election of 1803, that the republican party had
gained as many recruits from the federal ranks as they
had lost by the desertion of their own friends who voted
for Mr. Burr; and this will generally be found to be the
consequence resulting from this weak and puerile policy.

The result of the election for members of the legislature
was also favorable to the regular republican party. In
the assembly that party had a large majority. The sena-
tors elected this year were Ebenezer Burdy and Thomas
Thomas from the southern; Samuel Brewster and Stephen
Hogeboom from the middle; Stephen Thomas from the
eastern, and Jedediah Peck and Henry Huntington from
the western districts; all understood to belong to the same
party who supported Mr, Lewis.

Daniel D. Tompkins was at this election chosen a
member of congress from the city of New- York.

14

210 POLITICAL HISTORY

CHAPTER IX.

FROM MAY 1, 1S04, TO MAY 1, 1605.

The result of the New-York election had entirely pros-
trated the political prospects of Col. Burr. He was irre-
vocably cast off from the republican party in the nation;
and the event of the contest in this state had proved that
his friends were not sufficiently numerous when connected
with the federalists, or so many of them as would
join his standard, to sustain him here. Should the
federalists as a party ever gain the ascendency, the pros-
pect of which was extremely unpromising, he knew by
what had recently occurred, that he would have no hopes
of promotion from that party. His political fortunes
therefore seemed totally wrecked and irretrievably ruin-
ed. In reflecting upon the cause of that ruin, he un-
doubtedly regarded Gen. Hamilton as the principal agent
in effecting it. If at any time he had expected the aid
of the federal members of congress to elect him president
in preference to Mr. Jefferson, he had there met the oppo-
sition of Mr. Hamilton; for on that occasion Mr. Bay-
ard of Delaware, and Mr. Morris of Vermont, two of Mr.
H.'s friends, had given the election to Mr. Jefferson. In
the late contest, when his political life was at stake, the
same opponent had there stood in his way; and to his de-
nunciation and great and commanding influence, Mr. Burr
charged the defection and desertion of so large a portion
of federalists from their party. These considerations must
have produced in the gloomy and despairing mind of Col.
Burr a settled determination that he would have revenge
— a revenge that nothing short of the life of Hamilton
would satiate. It is impossible for me to account for the

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OF NEW- YORK. 211

duel which took place after this election, between Burr and
Hamilton, upon any other principle. It is true, that had
the answer of Gen. Hamilton to the first communication
of Burr been more guarded and more conciliatory in its
tone and manner, it might have put Burr more clearly in
the wrong, and furnished positive and decisive evidence
that from the commencement he premeditated and deter-
mined on a mortal contest. But he knew that Gen. Ham-
ilton from his youth, had been a military man, and that he
was sensitively alive to his honor as a soldier; and a care-
ful review of the correspondence as it was actually con
ducted, will convince all candid men that Burr, when he
wrote the first note, was resolved that the issue should be
nothing less than the death of one of the parties.

The ground on which Col. Burr founded his cause of
offence w^as purely technical. Doct. Charles D. Cooper,
•who lived in the family of Judge Tayler of Albany, and
married his adopted daughter, was warmly and actively
engaged as a partisan, in the electioneering campaign be ■
tween Burr and Lewis.

While Hamilton was attending the supreme court
in the preceding February term, he had dined at Judge
Tayler'sj and in conversation on that occasion, had ex-
pressed himself against the election of Col. Burr as go-
vernor. He spoke of Col. Burr's political conduct and
principles only, to which, on that, as on all other occa-
sions, he declared himself hostile. Doct. Cooper believ-
ing that the opinions of Gen. Hamilton might have an
effect favorable to the election of Mr. Lewis, wrote an
electioneering letter to Mr. Brown, who lived in one of the
country towns of the county of Albany. I suppose in
the haste with which such letters are commonly writ-
ten, he stated that Gen. Hamilton was openly and
decidedly opposed to Burr, and that Judge Kent and
the Patroon were indifferent and cold towards him. This

212 POLITICAL HISTORY

statement was in part contradicted by a letter written by
Gen. Schuyler to Doct. Stringer, chairman of the federal
committee, in which Gen. S. stated that Mr. Hamilton and
Judge Kent had not stated that they were against Burr on
the question as between him and Lewis; but merely that
they preferred Chancellor Lansing to Col. Burr. On the
23d of April, Doct. Cooper replied to Gen. Schuyler's
letter, and reiterated the assertions contained in his letter
to Brown. He affirms that Hamilton and Kent both con-
sidered Burr " as a dangerous man, who ought not to be
trusted with the reins of government," and then adds that
he " could detail a still more despicable opinion," which
Hamilton had expressed of Burr. Now it is well known
to those acquainted with the manner in w^hich political
letters are written near the morning of an excited elec-
tion, that the writers of those letters are not very particu-
lar in the choice of words to convey their ideas. The
meaning of Doct. Cooper undoubtedly was, " Hamilton
and Kent both consider Burr, politically, as a dangerous
man and unfit for the office of governor, and Hamilton
has expressed his opposition to Burr's election in terms
still more decided." This every man who read Cooper's
letter understood to be his real meaning, and in this way
Col. Burr must have understood it. He chose, however,
to fasten on the word " despicable,''^ and consider that, as
perhaps it technically was, offensive. In his first note to
Gen. Hamilton, he without preface demands of him " a
prompt and unqualified acknowledgment or denial of
having said any thing which warranted such an expres-
sion." This note bore date the l8th July. On the 20th
Gen. Hamilton replied, declining an express admission or
denial, alleging that the charge was too vague and inde-
finite; and denying the right of Col. Burr to interrogate
him as to what he had said; but declaring his readiness to
avow or deny any declarations which Col. Burr would

OF NEW- YORK. 213

specifically point out. He concludes by saying " I trust
on further reflection you will see the matter in the same
lioht with me. If not, I can only regret the circumstance
and must abide the consequences.'''' Now, without being
learned in the law of duelling, it strikes me that Mr.
Hamilton might, without degrading himself, have stated
that he had made no declarations in presence of Dr.
Cooper, impeaching Col. Burr's private character or his
honor as a gentleman, but that his remarks were entirely
of a political nature, and thus to have inrited Col. Burr
to specify.

The reply of Col. Burr was acrid and offensive. After
Gen. Hamilton had replied to the second letter of Col.
Burr, he put into the hands of Mr. Pendleton, (his friend,)
a paper to be communicated to Col. Burr, in which he
stated, that in answer to a letter properly adapted to obtain
from him a declaration whether he had charged Col. Burr
with any particular instance of dishonorable conduct or
had impeached his private character, either in the conver-
sation alluded to by Doct. Cooper, or in any other partic
ular instance to he specified^ he would be able to answer,
consistently with his honor and the truth, " that the
conversation, to which Doct. Cooper alluded, turned
wholly on political topics and did not attribute to Col.
Burr any instance of dishonorable conduct, nor relate
to his private character; and in relation to any other Ian
guage or conversation of Gen. Hamilton, which Col. Burr
will specify, a prompt and frank avowal or denial will be
given." This declaration, it appears to me, entirely re-
moved the cause of the alleged offence, and had not Col.
Burr been determined on a combat, which in all probability
would be fatal to one of the parties, would have put an
end to the controversy. Col. Burr, however, declared
that he considered this proposition " a mere evasion," and
persisted in his demand for satisfaction.. Any person de-

214 POLITICAL HISTORY

sirous of examining the whole correspondence will find it
in 2 Davis'' s Burrj 296 to 316. It was conducted, on the
part of Col. Burr, by his friend and second ,Wm. P. Van
Ness, and with his usual superior ability. Judging from
the style I should think the two notes signed by Mr. Burr
were also written by Mr. Van Ness. How far the dark
and malignant spirit of that talented man may have aided
in producing this melancholy affair is, and always will
remain, unknown. The issue of the correspondence, the
meeting and its melancholy and fatal consequences, are
too well known to require to be repeated.*

The recollection of Gen Hamilton's revolutionary servi-
ces— his transcendant talents — his private worth — the
amiable frankness of his nature, and the integrity of his
heart, connected with his sudden, unexpected and violent
death, produced a sensation among all ranks of society,
and all parties in New-York, more universal than was ever
before, or has since been excited. The lamentations
for Hamilton had the effect of politically sinking Col. Burr
below that " lowest deep " in which the last election had
cast him. From the moment Hamilton fell. Burr was
politically as dead as he now is naturally.

By the retirement of Gov. Jay and the death of Gen.
Hamilton, the federalists of New-York were left without
any acknowledged leader.

Gov. Lewis convened the council of appointment im-
mediately after his inauguration. His election to the
office of governor had left a vacancy on the supreme
court bench. Judge Kent tvas promoted to the office of
chief justice and Daniel 1) Tompkins was appointed a
judge. At the time of his appointment he must have been
about thirty years old. It is somewhat singular that so

• I have it from unquestionable authority that Col. Swartwout, on the morninf
of the duel, called on Col. Burr and found him in a sound sleep.
Thai Burr was a man of great personal courage there can be no doubt.

OF m:\v-vork. 215

young a man should have been appointed to an office so
highly important; but it may be remarked that the senior
members of the bar, whose age and talents had enabled
them to acquire any considerable reputation, were nearly
all federalists; and it was not and is not the fashion to
confer important offices on political opponents. Mr.
Tompkins was a young man of fair reputation, and ex-
ceedingly prepossessing and popular manners. He had
lately been elected a member of congress from the city of
New-York, a circumstance which, considering his youth,
afforded evidence of the high opinion which those who
knew him best had formed of him. On the same day the
council removed Peter B. Porter from the office of clerk
of the county of Ontario, probably on account of his sup-
port of Col. Burr for governor, and appointed a man by
the name of Tiffiany in his place.

On the 10th of November, Maturin Livingston, the
brother-in-law ot Gov. Lewis, was appointed recorder of
New-York. If we are to believe the federal newspapers,
this appointment was not well received. The manners of
Mr. Livingston, they alleged, were extremely unpopular.
He had not been distinguished as a lawyer, and he was
known to be more devoted to pleasurable amusements than
to business. It was also alleged that his connexion with
the governor, and not his personal merit or fitness for the
proper discharge of the duties of the office, had caused his
appointment.

The "legislature assembled in November for the choice
of presidential electors. Alexander Sheldon was again
chosen speaker. The governor, in his speech, among
other things, informed the legislature of the resignation of
Gen. Armstrong as United States senator, in consequence
of his appointment as American minister to France. The
legislature, after appointing electors, chose Dr. Samuel
L. Mitchell as the successor of Gen. Armstrono-. Doct.

*»•

216 ' POLITICAL HISTORY

Mitchell was a learned man, and had read much. He
was perfectly honest and sincere, but almost ridiculously
vain. He was well acquainted with books, but knew lit-
tle of men. He supported the republican party because
Mr. Jefferson was its leader, and he supported Mr. Jeffer-
son because he was a philosopher.

Very little else was done at this session except choosing
a senator in congress, and electors for president.

Upon the canvass of the presidential votes given in the
nation, it appeared that out of one hundred and seventy-
six, Mr. Jefferson and George Clinton received them all,
save fourteen which were given for Mr. Pinckney of
South Carolina and Mr. King of New-York. From this
canvass may be seen the prodigious increase of strength
of the republican party within a very few years.

On the 22nd January, 1805, the legislature again met.
It is creditable to Gov. Lewis that on the 5th day of Feb-
ruary he sent an excellent and special message to the
legislature, in which he strongly urged the importance of
encouraging education, and especially of elevating the
character and increasing the capacity for usefulness of
common schools. He stated that the lands still owned by
the state amounted to one and an half millions of acres,
and he urged the appropriation of those lands to the exclu-
sive purpose of promoting education, and chiefly in aid of
common schools.

In pursuance of this recommendation, a bill was brought
into the legislature, which became a law on the 2nd of
April, by which the nett proceeds of the first five hundred
thousand acres of land which should be sold, should be
appropriated as a permanent fund for the support of com-
mon schools. The money paid for the sale of these lands
was required to be loaned out on bond and mortgage by
the comptroller, together with the interest, as from time
to time it should be paid into the treasury, until the prin-

OF NEW-YORK. 217

cipal sum should be sufficient to produce an interest of
fifty thousand dollars annually, when the interest was to
be annually distributed among the schools. This may be
said to be- the commencement of the school fund.

Judge Hobert died this year at the age of sixty-seven,
leaving vacant the office of district judge for the state of
New-York. Upon his death, Brockholst Livingston was
appointed his successor, but he declined to accept the
office. The vacancy was eventually supplied b^ the ap-
pointment of Matthias B. Talmadge, who probably owed
his selection to the influence of the vice-president, Clinton,
with whom he was connected by marriage. This appoint-
ment was an unfortunate one. Judge Talmadge never
had been distinguished for his legal attainments, and he
was rather indisposed to laborious application to business
These circumstances, together with the bodily indisposi-
tion with which he was affected soon after his appoint-
ment, rendered him almost' useless as a public officer.
The consequence was, that not many years afterwards the
state of New-York was divided into two districts, northern
and southern, and William P. Van Ness was appointed
judge of the southern district. From this time Judge
Talmadge performed very little service, although he con-
tinued to receive his salary until his death, which happened
about the year 1820.

In the assembly this year, the number of federal mem-
bers was less than thirty, but they had for their leader
William W. Van Ness from Columbia county, a young law-
yer possessing talents of high promise. He was a man
naturally persuasive and eloquent, of fine intellectual
powers, ardent and warm in his pursuits, ambitious and
fond of distinction, extremely pleasing and fascinating in
his address, both in public life and in his social intercourse;
with a lively fancy and most brilliant wit; his conversa-
tional powers exceeded those of almost any other man I

218 POLITICAL HISTORY

ever saw. He was fond of pleasure and sensual indul-
gence, and has been charged with being lax in his moral
principles; but if this were so, he certainly was a man
who possessed much of the milk of human kindness, was
ardent and frequently disinterested in his friendships, and
humane and benevolent in his feelings. With these quali-
ties, at the head of his little party, Mr. Van Ness made
his influence and power considerably felt in the legisla-
ture and in the state.

Obadiah German of Chenango county, although unedu-
cated was a bold and resolute man, of great native intel-
lectual strength and vigor. He may be said to have stood
at the head of the democratic party in the assembly during
this session.

In the early part of the winter session the assembly
chose for the council of appointment, John Schenck of the
southern, Joshua H. Brett of the middle, Jedediah Peck
of the western, and Stephen Thorn of the eastern dis-
tricts.

Previous to the chartering of the State Bank in 1803,
a company of gentlemen, principally merchants in New-
York, had associated by articles of partnership, said to
have been drawn by Gen. Hamilton, as a joint stock
company, under the name of the president, directors
and company of the MerchanVs Bank. A similar com-
pany was .formed in Albany about the same time, called
the " Mercantile Company." When the State Bank
oompany was chartered, the Merchant's Bank company
also applied for the like grant, and it is said, that some
ot the persons interested in the State Bank, promis-
ed these applicants their support; but the question having
been taken on the State Bank charter, and the bill incor-
porating that bank having passed into a law, the State
Bank now " forgot Joseph," and the application of the
Merchant's Bank company, was unsuccessful. In 1804,

OF NEW- YORK. 211)

■r^ ■ — D

tne company again applied and were again unsuccess-
ful. Mr. De Witt Clinton, and those interested in the
Manhattan company, which had then become a favorite
republican institution, were very active in resisting the
application of this association of merchants.

The legislature of 1804, did not content themselves
by merely refusing to grant a charter to this company,
but on the 11th day of April, they passed an act re-
straining banking by all unincorporated companies under
severe penalties, and declaring all notes or other secu-
rities for the payment of money to such unincorporated
companies absolutely voidj but they by this act provid-
ed that the Mercantile company in Albany, and the
Merchant's Bank in New-York should have until the
first Tuesday of May, 1805, to close their concerns. If
after that day, they attempted to transact banking busi-
ness they were to be subjected to all the penalties of
other unchartered companies.

The Merchant's Bank company at the session of 1805,
made another great and vigorous effort to obtain a char-
ter. It is not my intention here to detail the facts in re-
lation to this application, further than to state, that it was
originally opposed by the American Citizen and Albany
Register, on party grounds, not because the chartering of
this bank w^ould be prejudicial to the public interest, but
because the applicants were principally federalists. Event-
ually, itis true, it appeared that the company did resort to
vile and corrupt means to obtain their ends. It was proved
that several members of the legislature had been tampered
with, and Judge Purdy, who introduced in the senate the
bill to incorporate the company, finally was compelled
to resign his seat to avoid expulsion for bribery. Mr.
Maturin Livingston was sent to Albany by the republi-
cans of New-York, to oppose the charter; but in two
days after his arrival in Albany, changed his position and

220 POLITICAL HISTORY

became its ardent supporter. Gov. Lewis was in favor
of incorporating the company. His reasons, as he stated
them, were, that the company had commenced banking
when by law they had a right so to do, that under the
faith of the existing law they had invested a large capital,
had erected buildings and incurred other expenses, and
that inasmuch as the exercise of banking powers by the
company, would not, in his judgment, be prejudicial to
the public interest, the legislature upon principles of com-
mon justice ought to charter the company or so modify
the restraining law as to render it inapplicable to them.
No one, I believe, ever charged Mr. Lewis with acting
from corrupt motives. His reasons, in the abstract, and
aside from the improper conduct of the applicants, ap-
pear to me sound and satisfactory; and yet there can be
no doubt that the opposition to him which was led on by
Mr. Clinton and Judge Spencer, was originally, certainly
it was ostensibly, founded upon his declarations in favor
of this bank, an opposition which ultimately resulted in
his political ruin at least for the time then being.

The Merchant's Bank charter finally passed both houses
by a considerable majority, but in the coimcil of revision
Judge Spencer zealously protested and published his pro-
test against the passage of the bill; he founded his protest
on two grounds:

First, because the public interest did not require an in-
. crease of banks or banking capital in New-York.*

Second, because the passage of the bill through one, if
:not both branches of the legislature, was procured by
bribery and corruption. In illustration of this position,
.among other allegations he stated that, in the senate the
bill passed by a vote of fourteen to twelve, that Ebene-
.zer Purdy was bribed, that he constituted one of the four-

* There was then only ihe New- York Bank and the Manhattan Bank in tbe
, great city of Xew-York.

OF NEW-YORK, 221

teen, and if he had voted in the negative the bill wouhl
have been rejected. But the bill, notwithstanding, was
approved by a majority of the council of revision, con-
sisting of Lewis, Kent, B. Livingston, Lansing and
Thompson, and became a law. No doubt, that during
this session, considerable dissatisfaction was felt by the
republican members of the legislature with Gov. Lewis,
which was encouraged by the immediate friends of Messrs.
Clinton and Spencer, but no open outbreak ensued, and
the legislature adjourned at the usual time, without trans-
acting any important business, unless the chartering of a
third bank in New-York can be deemed important.

Mr. Broome having been chosen lieutenant governor,
Mr. De Witt Clinton was nominated from the southern
district to supply his place, and Mr. L'Hommedieu's term
of service having expired, he also was nominated for a
re-election from the same district.

In the address of the meeting which nominated these
gentlemen, of which Gen. Bailey was chairman, they say
that they have selected Mr. Clinton and Mr. L'Homme-
dieu as their candidates because the proceedings of the le-
gislature in chartering the Merchant's Bank, have greatly
alarmed them, and they charge the members at the last
session directly with corruption. They complain of the
conduct of their republican brethren in the country as
being inattentive to their feelings and interest. " A new
bank," say they, " has been created in our city, and its
charter granted to political enemies." Absurd! as if men
who happened to be federalists ought to be deprived of
the right of using their money for banking purposes.

There was a division in the republican party in respect
to one of the candidates for the senate from the eastern
district. Joseph C. Yates, afterwards a judge of the
supreme court and governor of the state, had been
nominated by the republicans of Schenectady, but
Mr. Quackenboss was nominated and supported by the

222 POLITICAL HISTORY

Albanians. The Albany Register contended that the
nomination of Mr. Yates was spurious, and that Mr.
Quackenboss was the true republican candidate. That pa-
per had a commanding influence among the republicans
of the district, and it alleged, and probably truly, that a
large majority of the democratic votes were cast for
Quackenboss, and that the federalists generally voted for
Yates.

The senators elected this year from the southern district
were, De Witt Clinton and Ezra L'Hommedieu, from the
middle, Peter C. Adams and James G. Graham, from the
eastern, Joseph C. Yates, Adam Comstock and John
Veeder, and from the western Nathaniel Locke and John
Nicholas.

In the assembly, there was as usual a large majority of
democratic members returned. It does not appear that either
the selection of candidates or the election of members, turn-
ed upon the predilection for or opposition to the continued
support of Mr. Lewis as the republican candidate for go-
vernor. No doubt, the war w'hich broke out in the suc-
' ceeding winter among the members of the democratic
party, was foreseen by the leaders of both sections of the
republicans, but they probably perceived that the public
mind was not then ripe for an open and public declaration
of hostilities.

6F new- YORK, 223

CHAPTER X.

FROM MAY 1, 1806, TO MAY 1, 1806.

Among the charges made by the republican against the
federal party, perhaps the most prominent one, and that
which had caused the greatest popular odium to attach
itself to the latter party, was, that they were not only
favorable to the principles of the British, but were in fact
partial to that nation. Two circumstances had afforded
some countenance to this accusation. The one was,
that in all previous disputes between this government and
Great Britain, in which the British charged the American
government with extending undue favors to the French,
with whom the English were at war, and in all controver-
sies which had arisen in relation to the rights of these
belligerents, the federalists had generally taken sides
against the French and in favor of the British. The other
circumstance to which I allude was, that in point of fact
many more of the tories of the revolution had attached
themselves to the federalists than to the republicans. This
being the state of things, the federalists of Albany, in my
judgment, committed, previous to the celebi-ation of Ame-
rican Independence on the fourth of July, a capital error.
The common council of that city, a majority of whom
were federal, passed a resolution that the Declaration of
Independence should not be read as a part of the perform-
ances of the day. The alleged reason for passing the
resolution was, that the reading of the declaration tended
to perpetuate prejudices and hostile feelings against the
British nation, when the causes of hostility had long since
ceased to exist. I might remark that the reading of that
document ought not, and among an intelligent people it

224 POLITICAL HISTORY

will not, LaA-e that effect. True, it points out in bold
relief the causes of the revolutionary war, which it charges
to improper acts of the British government, but that same
instrument concludes with the solemn declaration that we
will regard that nation as " enemies in war, in peace,
FRIENDS." Why, then, should its reading perpetuate
prejudices '? But, without discussing or deciding in the
abstract the merits or demerits of the resolution, it strikes
me, that as a party movement, it was extremely impolitic.
It seemed to sustain and strengthen the allegation that the
federalists, as a party, were partial to Great Britain, or
that they disapproved of the liberal and just sentiments
Contained in that document, or both.

No man will deny but that the federalists, as a body,
were as sincerely and as warmly attached to this country
and its civil institutions, as any other body of menj and
yet, by little errors, such as the one I have mentioned,
more probably, than from erroneous opinions as to the
great measures which ought to be pursued by the state
and nation, were they kept out of power.

Not long after the result of the election was known, the
American Citizen and Albany Register began openly to
take ground against Governor Lewis and those republi-
cans who were known to be friendly to him. On the
other hand, a newspaper printed in Poughkeepsie and
edited by Mr. Isaac Mitchell, called the Poughkeepsie
Journal, and supposed to be influenced by Doct. Tillotson,
the secretary of state, assailed Mr. Clinton and Judge
Spencer with much bitterness. In the course of the sum-
mer, the Morning Chronicle, the Burr paper in New- York,
was discontinued; and it was alleged that it was joined
with the Journal, and that thereupon a new paper was
issued entitled " The Poughkeepsie Barometer."

A republican paper called the Plebian, printed in Ul-
ster county under the management of Jesse Buel, Esq.,

OF NEW-YORK. 225

afterwards editor of the Albany Argus, and stale printer,
came out in favor of Gov. Lewis, and of course against
Mr. Clinton and his friends. In this controversy it has,
I believe, generally been coiiceded that Mr. Clinton was
the assailant. It has, at any rate, never to ray knowledge
been pretended that Gov. Lewis manifested any hostility
to Mr. C. or his friends until they attacked him. \

Was there a sufficient cause, or were there any good pub-
lic reasons, why Mr. Clinton should have made war on
Gov. Lewis 1 Had he done any act injurious to the state,
or even to the republican party as such 1 I confess, I
have looked in vain for such cause, or such act. Certainly
the simple declaration of Gov. Lewis that the Merchants
Bank company ought either to be chartered, or to be per-
mitted to exercise those rights, which by the law of the
land they had a right to exercise when they invested their
money, was not a good cause for denouncing him. To
wage war upon a public agent, who is discharging his
duties wisely and faithfully, merely for the purpose of
getting him out of the way and getting his place, under
the pretence that you are acting for the good of a party,
when no single act is designated showing that he has
abandoned the principles of that party, is not patriotism:
it is Jacobinic proscription. Mr. Clinton himself after-
wards suffered severely: bitterly indeed did he suffer, by
the same course of conduct, pursued against himself.
Mr. Clinton may have thought, he probably did think.
Governor Lewis was personally unsuitable, and, if you
please, unfit to discharge the duties of governor of this
state. But, if he thought so, he should have said so, and
made that the ground of complaint against him. But
instead of this, he charged him with bad faith to the re- '
publican party, and made war, not only on him, but on
all others who manifested a disposition to support him.
Having gained a numerical majority of the republican

15

226 POLITICAL HISTORY

members of the legislature, he proceeded without cause,
(for nothing which may be called a cause was assigned in
the address subsequently published by Mr. Clinton and
his friends,) to excommunicate Gov. Lewis from the re-
publican church. Did not personal considerations, in
some degree, influence Mr. Clinton's conduct 1 Did it
not occur to him that if Gov. Lewis and the powerful
family of the Livingstons were exiled from the republican
party, his power, as the sole head of that party in the
great state of New-York, would be immensely increased 1
Much as I esteem and venerate the man, in this I disap-
prove of his conduct. The only legitimate ground upon
which parties can be organized, is a difference of opinion
as to measures. All other party organizations are mere
combinations for the benefit of a few to the injury of the
many.

During the summer of 1805 Mr. Clinton and his friends
were not inactive. They foresaw that Mr. Lewis, in
connection with the Livingston family, would be able to
detach a very considerable number from the democratic
party, and if such detachment should be joined by the
federalists, serious apprehensions were entertained in rela-
tion to the result of the contest.

The duel with Hamilton, and its lamented termination,
had, in connection with the political sins of Col. Burr,
entirely annihilated him as a politician. There were,
how^ever, a number of men in New-York, as well as in
several other counties in the state, active, ardent and influ-
ential, who had supported Burr, and in consequence of
that support were put in Coyen^ry by the republican party.
Among the most active of the Burrite faction in the state,
were Col. John Swartwout, Matthew L. Davis, Peter Ir-
ving and Ezekiel Robins.

What part would this band of men take in the coming
contest ? Their chief had been pitted against Gov, Lewis

OF NEW-VORK. 227

and been beaten. Col. Burr, they believed, had been
proscribed by the republican party in consequence of his
accepting aid from the federal party, and his supposed
connection with them. Was it not natural, that the Burr-
ites should feel inclined to prostrate Mr. Lewis by the
same means with which they believed he had overcome
Mr. Burr 1 Should the Burrites be influenced by these
considerations, then Mr. Clinton might reasonably calcu-
late on a reinforcement from their ranks which might, in
part or whole, supply the loss which would be sustained
by the desertion of the Livingston family and their friends.

It is highly probable that Mr. Clinton reasoned some-
thing in this way, for although there are various and
contradictory statements, it is very certain that in the
autumn of 1805 Mr. C.'s friends, and indeed Mr. Clinton
himself, were in communication with the leading Burrites
in New-York, and that the object of the negotiation was
to bring the Burrites to act with the republicans against
Gov. Lewis.

In the year 1810, a series of letters addressed to De
Witt Clinton appeared in a newspaper printed in New-
York, and afterwards printed in a pamphlet form under the
signatures of Marcus and Philo Cato; long since avowed
to be written by Matthew L. Davis. These letters charge,
that in December, 1805, Mr. Levi McKean, a Burrite
from Poughkeepsie, residing in the same village with
Gen. James Talmadge, then a zealous Clintonian, arrived
in New-York and called on several of his political friends,
stating to them that overtures had been made " by the
Clintonians to form a union with the Burrites." * * * *
" He added that he had conversed with Gen. Bailey on
the subject, and was desirous that Col. Swartwout should
consent to an interview for that purpose. It was suggest-
ed," says the writer, " that as Mr. Clinton had not the
power of giving offices at that moment, and thus publicly

228 POLITICAL HISTORY

committing himself, he should give to Col. Burr's friends
pecuniary aid through the medium of the Manhattan
Bank, of which he was a director, and from which bank
they were almost totally excluded." That on the 7th of
January, 1806, Mr. Swartwout received from Gen. Bailey
a written note inviting him to spend an hour w^ith him
that evening.

The invitation was accepted, and Gen. Bailey, on that
occasion, avowed himself to be acting as the agent of De
Witt Clinton. Several other interviews between these
gentlemen followed^ and eventually, according to Mr.
Davis, an agreement, to the purport following, was made
and concluded on the 11th of January: —

^'■Firstly — That Col. Burr should be recognised by the
union party, as a republican.

'^Secondly — That the editor of the American Citizen
should desist from all attacks upon him or his friends j
that he should advocate the union, if it became necessary,
in his paper; and that he should not defend the Burrites
as reiurnhig to republican principles, they persisting that
they never had abandoned them.

'^Thirdly — That the friends of Col. Burr, as it respected
appointments to offices of honor or profit throughout the
state, should be placed on the same footing as the most
favored Clintonian, and that their Burrism should never
be urged as an objection to their filling those offices."

Mr. Davis, in his pamphlet, further states, that on the
24th January, Mr. Clinton himself met Col. Swartwout,
Peter Irving and M. L. Davis, in the evening, at the house
of Gen. Bailey; that he brought with him Mr. Ezekiel
Robins, a zealous partizan of Burr; and that congratula-
tions respecting the union mutually passed between the
contracting parties. Affairs remained in this condition
until the 20th February, w^hen a meeting was heVl of the
leading Clintonians and Burrites at Dyde's hotel, in the

OF NEW-VORK. 229

vicinity of New-York, where the utmost good feeling was
manifested and toasts were drank highly complimentary
to the leaders of both parties. The Burrites drank the
health of Mr. Clintonj and the Clintonians toasted the
anticipated union of the republican party.

Mr. Clinton denied the truth of the statement contained
in the letters of Marcus. I am far from believing in the
correctness of these representations. The letters were
written during the time of high party excitement and for
political effect. Most evidently the object of Mr. Davis,
who was an ardent, and, as many say, an unscrupulous
partizan, was effectually to ruin the political standing of
Mr. Clinton with his republican friends. That Mr. Clin-
ton should have stipulated for the bestowment of govern-
mental patronage, and more especially that he should have
expressly agreed that individuals, by name, should be
chosen members of the legislature, (for, among other
things, it was alleged that Mr. Clinton promised that
Peter Townsend, a Eurrite, should be elected a member
of the assembly from Orange co., and also that Levi Me
Kean should be appointed clerk of Dutchess,) I do not
believe.

Upon the appearance of these letters Mr. Clinton pub-
licly pronounced them false and libellous, and gave notice
in the newspapers that he had commenced a suit against
the publisher. The defendant appeared and gave notice
that he would prove the truth of all his allegations, but
Mr. Clinton never brought the cause to trial.

I have stated that I do not believe all the allegations
made by Marcus; yet I do believe that a political negoci-
ation of some sort was commenced by Mr. Clinton and
his friends with the Burrites, and that, previous to the
Dyde' supper, it was supposed to have been completed.

That Gen. Bailey was the confidential friend of Mr.
Clinton, and that he had repeated interviews with Col.

230 POLITICAL HISTORY

Swartwoutj is not denied j that immediately after these
interviews a loan of eighteen thousand dollars was made
by the Manhattan Bank to a distinguished Burrite, (for,
if the allegation had been untrue its falsity might, and
would have been proved by the books of the bank); that
on the 24th January Mr. Clinton met Col. Swartwout and
his two friends, in company with Mr. Robins, at the
house of Gen. Bailey, was an assertion, which, if false,
might have been disproved; and that there was a meeting
at Dyde's hotel of the leaders of both parties, at which
such proceedings were had as afforded evidence that the
gentlemen then present believed that a cordial union had
been consummated, it seems to me are facts, of the verity
of which we cannot doubt.

Until the supper at Dyde's, it would seem that the
knowledge of these proceedings was confined to a very
few persons; but, on the publication of the proceedings
of that supper party, much indignation was felt by many
republicans in the city, and on the 24th February, four
days after the Dyde supper, a very numerous meeting
was held at Martling's Loxg Room, at which the union
and its authors were denounced in unmeasured terms.
This meeting was got up by a few dissatisfied Burrites,
and many honest and well meaning republicans; and it is
highly probable that the immediate friends of Gov. Lewis
exerted themselves to increase the jealousy of the republi-
cans of Mr. Clinton and a few Clintonian leaders in the
city, among whom Richard Riker and P. C. Van Wyck
"were conspicuous, and to fan the flame of discord and en-
mity among the followers of Mr. Clinton. Be this as it
may, this meeting, and the materials of which it was com-
posed, formed the nucleus of a party in the republican
ranks which ultimately destroyed the political standing of
Mr. Clinton with the majority of his friends. Hence his
democratic opponents, for a long time afterwards, were

OF NEW-YORK. 231

known in other parts of the state by the name of " Mart-
ling MEN." Mr. Clinton, who was then at Albany, upon
being advised of these proceedings, wrote to his friend.
Gen. Bailey, approving in general of the course pursued
at Martling's long room, and condemning as imprudent
the conduct of his friends at Dyde's. The support of the
republican party, by the Burrites, he declared would be
universally agreeable, but that ought not to be purchased
by a promise of office.

But it is now time to return to Albany. The legisla
ture met on the 28th January. Dr. Alexander Sheldon,
of Montgomery county, was again chosen speaker, and
Mr. Southwick clerk.

The governor, in his speech, among other matters, com
municated to the legislature the case of Stephen Arnold,
who had been convicted at a court of oyer and terminer
held in Otsego county in the summer of 1805, of the mur-
der of a child. The child had refused to spell or pro-
nounce a certain word, and to compel it to do so Arnold
had chastised it so severely as to cause its death. He
was sentenced to be hanged, but on the day appointed for
his execution the governor caused a reprieve to be deliv-
ered to the sheriff, being of opinion that the facts proved
the culprit guilty of manslaughter and not murder. For
this act Mr. Lewis was severely censured by his oppo
nents, and considerable popular indignation was excited
against him. If he committed an error that error was on
the side of humanity. In my judgment it is discreditable
to any party to attempt to create political capital by such
means.

The legislature passed a law commuting the punishment
of death in Arnold's case, for imprisonment in the state's
prison for life. Some of the men who had when at home
joined in the clamor against Gov. Lewis for suspending
the execution of Arnold, and perhaps excited it, voted fbr

232 POLITICAL HISTORY

a commutation of his punishment. Such vote was a con-
demnation of themselves and a justification of the governor.

There was another part of the governor's speech which,
if -not more deserving of animadversion, at any rate expos-
ed him to some degree of merited ridicule. Mr. Lewis
had, during the revolutionary war, been engaged in the
military service of the country, and he was fond of milita-
ry bustle, parade and. pageantry. During the autumn of
1805 he had in person, as commander-in-chief, inspected
the militia in most of the counties in the state, and in his
speech he said much about the militia and made several
suggestions as to the best means of improving their disci-
pline and martial appearance, and in the course of his ad-
dress he spoke of the importance of martial music, and
remarked that, " In our military equipments, there is the
almost universal want of experienced drummers. The
drum is all important in the day of batile.^^ We have
often heard of drumming up recruits, but never of drum-
ming off enemies or frightening them away by the sound
of a drum. This sentence furnished much aliment for the
wits of that day.

The governor, in his speech, alluded in a very proper
manner to the difficulties between the American govern-
ment and the belligerents of Europe. He expressed an
apprehension that a war with one or both the belligerent
powers might become inevitable, and he urged the neces-
sity of putting the state in a posture of defence. He
stated the debt due from New-York to the general govern-
ment to be seven hundred and sixty-eight thousand three
hundred and twenty dollars and fourteen cents, of whieh,
according to a previous understanding, New-York had a
right to expend five hundred and twenty-four thousand
and sixty-six dollars and seventy cents in fortifying our
harbors and other exposed points, and he invited the atten-
tion of the legislature to that subject.

OF NEW-VORK. 233

In the early part of the session the assembly proceeded
to elect a council of appointment, and De Witt Clinton
from the southern, Robert Johnson from the middle, Adam
Comstock from the eastern, and Henry Huntington from
the western districts were chosen.

These gentlemen had been nominated by a general cau-
cus of all the republican members. The friends of the
governor complained that this mode of nomination was
unusual; that before that time the custom was for the
republican members of assembly from each district to meet
and severally designate the member of the senate from
their district whom they desired should be chosen a coun-
cillor; and they insisted that had such course now have
been pursued, Mr. Clinton would not have been selected
as the favorite candidate of the southern district. This
complaint, however, does not seem to have produced
much impression.

On the 31st of March, Mr. Richard Riker, a member
from New-York, brought a bill into the assembly, " for
the prevention of bribery," &c., by which any person
who should promise, offer or give any member of either
house of the legislature or council of revision, any money,
goods or chattels, or chose in action, &c., with intent to
influence his vote, such person should, on conviction, be
fined in a sum not exceeding one thousand dollars, or im-
prisoned in the state prison for a term not exceeding two
years. The bill also provided that any member, &c , who
should give his vote in consequence of such gift or prom-
ise, should be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and
should, on conviction thereof, be fined &c.; and the bill
was passed into a law on the seventh of April.

This salutary law was probably introduced in conse-
quence of the exceptionable proceedings of the applicants
for a charter of the Merchants Bank, the preceding session.
Considering the quarter from which this bill emanated, is it

234 POLITICAL HISTORY

not probable that one. object in introducing it, was to fasten
more strongly in the public mind the odious character of
that transaction, in which some of the governor's friends
were implicated t

In accordance with the same policy, Mr. Clinton had,
on the 15th March, offered a resolution in the senate for
the expulsion of Ebenezer Purdy, for the reason that he
had been bribed, and for his attempt to bribe Stephen
Thorne and Obadiah German. A day was appointed to
act on the resolution, but on the day after it was offered
Mr. Purdy resigned.

On the 26th March, the council of appointment com-
menced their operations by the removal of Maturin Liv-
ingston from the office of recorder of the city of New-York,
and the appointment of Pierre C. Van Wyck in his place.
They also removed Thomas Tillotson from the office of sec-
retary of state, and appointed Elisha Jenkins his successor.
Against these removals, the governor and Mr. Huntington
entered their protest. Mr. Huntington was a warm per-
sonal and political friend of Mr. Clinton, but he w^as also
a man of great moderation and prudence and altogether
incapable of persecution or proscription. The removal of
these officers, without any charge of official misconduct,
and merely because they were connected with and;-, sup-
porters of the governor, appeared to him too much like
persecution, and altogether inconsistent with the maxims
which always governed that excellent man's conduct. The
war upon the governor was now open and undisguised.
It was heated and extremely virulent. In all the minor
appointments, such as sheriffs, county clerks, surrogates,
county judges and justices of the peace, those candidates
were preferred by the council who were known to be .hos-
tile to the re-election of Gov. Lewis.

By the appointment of Mr. Jenkins secretary of state
the office of comptroller was left vacant, and that vacancy

OF NEW-YORK. 235

was supplied by the appointment of Archibald Mclntyre,
who long held the office and discharged its duties in a man-
ner highly satisfactory and beneficial to the public, and
creditable to himself.

When the dissensions between Gov. Lewis and Mr.
Clinton commenced, and after they had progressed for a
considerable time, the federalists looked on with apparent
indifference; but no sooner was the war openly declared
than they generally avowed their determination to support
the governor. William W. Van Ness was one of his
most zealous and efficient federal partizans. At the
annual election in April, the party rallied with considera-
ble energy, and in the counties where they were sure of a
federal majority, they supported federal candidates on
federal principles; in other counties, where two republi-
can tickets were run, they supported candidates who v/ere
friendly to the governor. The governor's republican
friends also made a rally, and the result was, that including
federalists, a majority of the members returned to the as-
sembly were favorable to Gov. Lewis.

In the senate, from the southern district, Benjamin Coe
and Johnathan Ward were elected; from the middle, Eli-
sha Barlow and James Burt; from the eastern, Jacob
Snell, and from the western, John Ballard, Salmon Buel
and Jacob Gebhard.

Eventually, the senators from the middle district, and
Mr. Snell from the eastern, attached themselves to the
party which supported Gov. Lewis.

236 POLITICAL HISTORY

CHAPTER XI.

FROM MAY 1, 1806, TO MAY 1, 1807,

Shortly after the election, a circumstance occurred
which showed that the Lewisites or quids, as they were
called, were equally disposed with their adversaries to use
the appointing power, so as to reward friends and punish
opponents. The corporation election of New-York had
resulted in the choice of some federalists and some Lewis-
ites, but both classes united, constituted a majority over
the Clintonians in the common council. The new board
forthwith set about removing such of the Clintonians as
held offices during the pleasure of the common council,
for no other cause than the political opinions which they
entertained, among whom was the comptroller of the city.
A party character was given to nearly all the new ap-
pointments.

The republican friends of the governor, perceiving that
he could not be nominated for a re-election by a majority
of the democratic members of the legislature, in order to
get him in the field as the candidate of a portion of the re-
publicans,'got up a meeting, on the 1st of January, 1807,
in the city of New-York, of which Thomas Storm was
chairman, and this meagre assembly in due form nomina-
ted Mr. Lewis as the republican candidate fov governor.

Very active measures were taken to secure a sufficient
number of the republican members of the assembly, cho-
sen in April preceding, who, in conjunction with the
federalists, would constitute a majority of that body; and
by this means the friends of the governor hoped to be able
to elect a speaker and a council of appointment, who would
be favorable to his views. Circular letters were written

OF NEW-yOKK. 237

to all the republican members who were not known to be
decided Clintonians, requesting that on their arriral in
Albany they would call on the treasurer, Mr. Abraham G.
Lansing, or on his son, G. Y. Lansing, Esq. who were
supporters of Gov. Lewis, for the purpose of consultation.
This legislature convened on the 27th of January. Of the
members of assembly who were in attendance on the first
day, eighteen were federalists and the residue were elected
as republicans.

Andrew McCord of Orange county, was the Lewisite
candidate for speaker, and Doct. Sheldon the Clintonian.
Upon canvassing the votes it appeared that Mr. McCord
had eleven majority. Mr. Garret Y. Lansing was elected
clerk by six majority over Mr. Southwick.

The governor's speech was a very ordinary production,
and seems to me inferior to his former addresses. On the
second day of the session, the assembly proceeded to choose
a council of appointment, and a Lewisite council was
chosen.

The following was the state of the vote: — Thomas
Thomas, fifty-one; James Burt, fifty-four; Edward Savage,
fifty-two; John Nicholas, fifty-two; E. L'Hommedieu,
forty-four; Peter C. Adams, forty-four; John Veeder,
forty-three; Nathan Smith, forty-three.

The Clintonians confidently charged that Mr. William
W. Van Ness was to be appointed attorney general, in con-
sideration of the eighteen federal votes which were given,
and which enabled the Lewisites to succeed in the choice
of the speaker and council of appointment. It so turned
out that he obtained a better oflSce. Gen. John Smith
having been elected senator of the United States to sup
ply a vacancy, his term expired on the 4th March, 1807,
and the two sections of the democratic party so far united
as to re-elect him on the first day of February.

238 POLITICAL HISTORY

On the first day of the meeting of the new council of
appointment, De Witt Clinton was removed from the
Mayoralty of New-York, and Smith Thompson one of the
judges of the supreme court, appointed in his place.
Judge Thompson, however, wisely declined to accept the
appointment, and subsequently Col. Marinus Willett was
appointed to that office.

On the 16th of February, the council proceeded to
remove Pierre C. Van Wyck from the office of recorder
of New-York, and re-appoint Maturin Livingston, they
also removed Mr. Jenkins and restored to Doct. Tillotson
the office of secretary of state. Thomas Morris, a dis-
tinguished federalist, was appointed clerk of the city
of New-York, and Teunis Wortman was removed to
make place for him. Among other appointments in
New-York, I observe that Isaac Kibbe an active Burrite,
and afterwards notorious as a lobby member and zealous
supporter of De Witt Clinton, was appointed to the office
of harbor master of the city of New-York. This coun
oil exercised their power to its full extent in removing
those whose political course rendered them obnoxious, and
in the appointment of their own partisans.

On the evening of the very day, (the 16th February,)
when the council of appointment made the removal of
De Witt Clinton and the other great state officers, the ma
jority of the republican members of the legislature met in
caucus and nominated Daniel D. Tompkins as their can-
didate for governor. It may seem unaccountable, that a
person so little known in the political field, should have
been selected as a candidate for the most important office
in the state. It is probable that the following were some
of the circumstances which led to the nomination of Mr.
Tompkins.

Mr. De Witt Clinton and Judge Spencer were the only
two prominent men at that time in the republican party

OF NEW-YORK. 24^^^

opposed to Gov. Lewis, who would have befj^g.nuch
thought of for governor. The whole artill^ ^^^ lof the
Livingston party had for some time been directs ^ towards
Mr. Clinton. He was represented as exercising .'.ictatorial
authority over his party; his influence by means of his
own political power and the popularity of his uncle was
said to be unreasonably great, and his manners and de-
portment were cold, repulsive and unpopular; besides,
the party opposed to Mr. Lewis, wished to alarm the
jealousies of the people against the overgrown power and
influence of the Livingston family, which they could not
with so much advantage and effect do, if they had for
their candidate a principal, though a junior member of the
Clinton family.

It is not known that Judge Spencer was desirous of the
the nomination, and if he was, nearly the same objections
existed against him as against Mr. Clinton. He had mar-
ried a sister of that gentleman for his second wife, and was
therefore considered one of the Clinton family, and he
had for many years been considered so closely united
with Mr. C. in all his movements, that in the public eye
the act of one Avas considered the act of the other. He
too, though highly esteemed as a judge, was never per-
sonally popular among the mass of the people.

Mr. Tompkins had, it is true, been but a short time be-
fore the people as a judge; but during that time he had
held circuits in almost every county in the state, and was
by that means personally known to a vast many people.
His appearance was extremely prepossessing, his manners
highly popular, and his address w^as every way pleasing.
And here let me remark, that there is no position in social
life so favorable to acquiring the esteem and confidence of
the people as that of a circuit judge of the supreme court,
if his manners are fascinating and agreeable. He goes
into a county where he is a stranger, and there meets at

246

POLITICAL HISTORY.

the court house, grand and petit jurors, witnesses and spec-
tators from almost every neighborhood in the county.
The ordinary discharge of the duties of his office presents
him as tUb friend of virtue and good order, the protector of
the innocent, the detector of frauds, oppression and crime,
and the minstering angel of pure and unadulterated jus-
tice. What situation in social life, in a free government,
can be more favorable to the acquisition of the confidence,
esteem and love of the people] To all these advantages
Mr. Tompkin's added another. He had no family con-
nections to control him, or for whom he w^ould be desirous
to provide; and his talents vsrere not considered of such
superior order as to excite the jealousy of such men as
Clinton and Spencer. Indeed, I have frequently thought
that these gentlemen under estimated the talents of Mr.
Tompkins; and if so, it is not impossible that they might
have more readily acceded to his nomination on that
account, imder the impression that they could more
easily mould him to their purposes; and if not, that there
would be no difficulty in getting rid of him.

John Broome was nominated for re-election as lieuten-
ant governor.

The address was signed by sixty-five republican mem-
bers of the legislature, being a majority of the whole
number of republicans in both houses. I have carefully
examined this address, and it is remarkable, that it does not
set forth any ground of principle as a reason why Mr.
Tompkins ought to be preferred to Mr. Lewis. Soon after
this, the Lewisite republican members of the legislature
held a meeting and nominated for re-election Gov. Lewis,
and they nominated Thomas Storm for lieutenant govern-
or. Their address was signed by forty. five members.

Abowt this time Brockholst Livingston was appointed
an associate judge of the supreme court of the United
States, and it became a question in which the public felt

OF NEW- YORK. /241

1

a deep interest, who should be his successor.^ The nji'mes of
John Woodworth, Jonas Piatt, and William W. Van Ness,
were mentioned in the newspapers as candidatefgrbut the
council did not think it expedient at that time, nor in-
deed until after the general election, to act on that ques-
tion. It is probable they were unwilling to make the
appointment before the election, fearing on the one hand,
that if they selected a federalist they should offend their
republican friends, and on the other, if they appointed a
republican that they would displease the federalists. To
such miserable straits the fragments of parties are always
liable to be driven, when their power and ascendency de-
pends on the action of a party to which they are in prin-
ciple opposed.

I have before remarked, that the advocates of Gov.
Lewis insisted that the sole cause of the opposition to
him was his refusal to be subservient to the individual
views of De Witt Clinton and Judge Spencer. In sup-
port of this charge, on the 6th of April, Chancellor Lan-
sing was induced to publish the reasons which prompted
him to decline the nomination of governor in 1804. It will
be recollected that before the nomination of Lewis, Lan-
sing was nominated, and accepted the nomination, but that
not long after his acceptance he addressed a letter to Mr.
Purdy, the chairman of the caucus which nominated him,
stating, that events had occurred subsequent to his ac-
ceptance of the nomination, which had induced him to
believe that he was mistaken in supposing that he, as go-
vernor, could be useful in promoting the republican inte-
rest in the state. The chancellor now informed the pub-
lic what those " events" were. He stated that a few days
after his nomination, in an interview with Gov. Clinton,
" an attempt was made by them to induce me," (these are
his words,) " to pledge myself for a particular course of
conduct in the administration of the government of the

16

242 POLITICAL HISTCTRY

state." He adds, that he declined to give such pledge.
That immediately afterwards he learned from Doct. Til-
lotson that Mr. Clinton had thrown out some mysterious
expressions against him, and that he had read to him,
(Tillotson) letters from Washington, charging the chan-
cellor with having made stipulations with Aaron Burr.
Mr. Lansing further stated, that the mode in which his
nomination was announced in the Albany Register was
singular, and the manner exceptionable, which he believed
was premeditated and intentional, because, late in the eve-
ning before that article appeared in the Register, Judge
Tayler, De Witt Clinton, the governor's private secre-
tary and Solomon Southwick had been seen together com-
ing out of the office of the editor of that paper. From
these circumstances the chancellor inferred, that if elected
governor his situation would be very uncomfortable, un-
less he should carry into effect the wishes and views of
Mr. Clinton, Judge Spencer, Judge Tayler, and their im
mediate friends.

Mr. Clinton and Judge Spencer very promptly denied
that they had expressed any unfavorable opinion of the
chancellor, or that they had ever exhibited any letter from
a Washington correspondent, containing any imputations
against him; and the vice-president, by a letter written at
Washington, dated 14th of April, also denied that he had
attempted to induce Mr. Lansing to pledge himself, in
case of his election as governor, that he would pursue
any particular course other than a general republican one.
To these publications and statements Chancellor Lansing
replied, that after his nomination the vice-president, then
governor, sent for him to call and see him, that he stated
that some of his friends were suspicious of him, (the
chancellor,) and in the course of the conversation Gov.
Clinton remarked, that he was spoken of as likely to be
chosen the next vice-president, that if Mr. Lansing should

\

OF NEW-YOUK. 243

be elected governorj the office of chancellor would be va-
cant, and that De Witt Clinton had been mentioned as a
suitable person to fill that office. Mr. Lansing states that
he replied, that in case the office of chancellor should
become vacant, in his judgment the senior judicial law
officer ought to be appointed to that office. On the 20th
of April, Mr. De Witt Clinton again replied, that he never
had any conversation about the office of chancellor in con-
nection with himself; and that he would not accept it, if
it were offered him. Some further correspondence of
considerable asperity and bitterness, took place between
Judge Spencer and Chancellor Lansing; but after the
election nothing further was heard about the controversy.
The probability is, that there was some misunderstand-
ing and misrecollection on both sides. We all know that
it is quite impossible for men in public life to recollect
with accuracy, casual conversations among friends. No-
thing is more likely, and supported by Chancellor Lan
sing's assertion, scarcely anything can be more certain, than
that Gov. George Clinton, who had long been the decided
personal and political friend of Mr. Lansing, should, in
conversing with him, being desirous to make a provision
for his favorite nephew, have mentioned him as a fit person
for the office of chancellor, and should have endeavored to
prepossess the man, who it was then believed would have
the power of disposing of the office, in favor of that
nephew. At the same time, those who knew De Witt
Clinton well in after life, will readily give him credit for
sincerity, when he declared he would not take the office of
chancellor if it were tendered to him. Nothing is more
certain than that he was far from desiring a judicial office.
Mr. Lansing had no doubt reason to beliete, and did be-
lieve, that Mr. Clinton and Judge Spencer wished to be
able to exercise a great influence over any state adminis-
tration which they should aid in creating; and feeling

244 POLITICAL HISTORY

himself determined, if he accepted office, to act inde-
pendent of, and uncontrolled by any one, he was jealous that
they were at heart opposed to him. This view of the af-
fair enables us, I think, to account satisfactorily for the
apparent contradictory statements of the several parties
without imputing intentional error to any one of them.

The temporary control by Gov. Lewis of the state
patronage, was of very little use to him. Indeed, it is not
improbable that it was more injurious than beneficial. A
few clamorous friends in each county compelled him to
make some removals, and to give his appointments a party
character, in every considerable neighborhood in the
state. He dared not appoint federalists, because even
the appointment of a federalist to the petty office of jus-
tice of the peace, would be denounced and harped upon
as an evidence that he had become a traitor to the party
who had clothed him with power. A large majority of
the republicans in every part of the state were opposed
to him. As he would not appoint federalists nor Clinto-
nians, the circle within which he could make the selection
was extremely limited. Hence, unfit men were in many
cases appointed. A comparison between the person appoint-
ed, because he was a republican friend of the governor^
with Clintonian and federal citizens in the same neighbor-
hood, of respected moral standing in society, talents and
personal fitness for the station, was frequently very unfa-
vorable to the office-holder; and ordinary men could hard-
ly avoid estimating the merits of the administration
by the merits of its chosen officers. The federalists, too,
were disgusted with his course. Many of them, greedy
for office, could not perceive the reason why they should
be called on to support a governor who treated them as
aliens. Others felt a hearty contempt for his timidity and
want of decision of character and boldness of action.
The members of his council did not always harmonize in

OF NEW-YORK. 245

their views. Mr. John Nicholas, the member from the
western district, had recently emigrated from Virginia to
the county of Ontario. He had, while he resided in Vir-
ginia, been a member of the house of representatives of
the United States from that state, and acquired a respecta-
ble standing in that body; but in New-York he was a
stranger, and it was impossible for him to understand all
the sinuosities of New-York politics. He was for a
straight forward, open course, and for treating all sup-
porters of the state administration, whether republicans or
federalists, alike.

Mr. Edward Savage was strongly prejudiced in favor
of the old republican party, of w^hich he had since the
adoption of the United States constitution been a uni-
form member. I can have no doubt his support of Gov.
Lewis was from pure and conscientious motives, and yet he
was complained of, as acting from selfish views. He was, I
believe, himself surrogate of the county of Washington;
his son John, the late chief justice, was district attorney
for the counties of Washington, Clinton, &c. He (the
son,) was a law partner of John Crary, Esq., and Mr.
Savage procured the removal of Mr. Sheppard, the clerk
of Washington county, and the appointment of Mr. Crary
in his place. Thus three of the best offices in that large
and respectable county, were secured between the mem-
ber of the council, his son, and his son's partner in busi-
ness. This accumulation of state patronage naturally ex-
cited some disgust in that part of the state, f

Mr. Burt was a shrewd, adroit man, and probably a bet
ter manager than either of the other members; but of his
particular views, I am not advised. In addition to the
difficulties I have mentioned, which Mr. Lewis and his
friends had to encounter, it was apparent that the great
mass of the republican party were against him, and calcu-
lating federalists as well as republicans foresaw that the

t Sec Note H.

246 POLITICAL HISTORY

question would ultimately be between the federal and re-
publican parties, and from the strength of the latter party
in the state, aided as it was, by the popularity and patron-
age of the general government, little doubt could be en-
tertained of what the final result of such a contest would
be in this state. Hence, many federalists seized the op-
portunity, under various pretences, to desert from their
former political associates, and connect themselves with a
political party whose fortunes seemed to promise better.
The change from a federalist to a republican was easily to
be effected. A federalist need do nothing but proclaim
himself an opponent to Gov. Lewis, and he was instantly
declared by the fathers of the church " a genuine repub-
lican."

The election terminated as might have been anticipated.
Mr. Tompkins was elected, by a less majority -than
Lewis obtained over Burr. Mr. T.'s majority was four
thousand and eighty-five.

The senators chosen at this election, were De Witt Clin-
ton from the southern district, Robert Williams and Joshua
H. Brett from the middle, John Tayler, John McLean,
Charles Selden, and Isaac Kellogg from the eastern, and
William Floyd and Alexander Rhae from the western
All the senators elected were republican Clintonians, ex
cept Messrs. Williams and Brett from the middle district,
who were Lewisites.

In order to close the account of the administration of
Gov. Lewis, I may as w^ell mention in this place, that
Gov. Lewis met the council of appointment on the ninth
day of June, for the purpose of appointing a judge of the
supreme court. The council were still divided in re-
lation to the proper candidate. If reports were correct
no two of them agreed on their man.

Mr. Nicholas was, as was said, for Jonas Piatt, Mr.
Savage f'f>»" John Woodworth, Mr. Burt for Van Ness, and

OF NEW-Y'ORK. 247

Mr. Thomas for Maturin Livingston. It was said that
the governor, true to the interest of his family, agreed
with Mr. Thomas. It is very probable that the federalists,
apprehending that a division of their influence between Van
Ness and Piatt might result in the appointment of either
Woodworth or Livingston, were, by means of the address
and importunity of Mr. Burt, aided by Mr, Van Ness
himself, induced to give up Mr. Piatt, and exert the whole
weight of their influence in favor of Van Ness. He was
appointed. Of his character and talents I have already
spoken.

In looking back to the year 1800, one cannot help being
struck with the reflection, that the great federal party in
the state were overthrown by the united exertions of the
Clintons, Livingstons, and Aaron Burr; that Burr was
prostrated by th«. joint efforts of the Clintons and Living-
stons, and that shortly afterwards the Clintons and Liv-
ingstons fell out, and the Livingstons were overcome by
the Clintons. This view cannot fail to remind us of the
military fortune of the celebrated Roman Triumvirate,
and the destruction of Lepidus by the joint arms of An-
thony and Augustus, and the final overthrow of Anthony
by Augustus.

But although the present victory elevated Mr. Clinton
to the very pinnacle of political power in the state, yet
the means by which he obtained the victory, the princi-
ples, or rather the want of principle, which induced him
and his coadjutors to act in the contest, and the enemies
he made during this struggle, when added to those pro-
duced by the controversy with Aaron Burr, combined with
the envy excited by his elevated political position and
supposed influence, seriously checked his advancement,
jand for a time threateaed his utter and irretrievable ruin.

248 POLITICAL HISTORY

CHAPTER XII.

FROM MAY 1, 1807, TO MAY 1, 1803.

In the latter part of the month of May, 1807, Col. Burr
was brought before chief justice Marshall, at Richmond in
Virginia, on a charge of misdemeanor, and also of treason
against the United States.

Although not expressly within the plan of these sketches,
yet as Mr. Burr was, for a considerable period of time, a
distinguished political partizan of this state, I shall present
a very succinct, but I fear, imperfect view of the singular
transactions in which he was the principal actor, and
which caused his arrest and trial. After his duel with
Gen. Hamilton, and after the term of his office as vice-pre-
sident had expired, he seemed to be left alone, and aban-
doned by all political parties.

The state of public feeling in New-York was such, after
the death of Hamilton, that his presence in that city could
not be endured. In New- Jersey he had been indicted by
a grand jury for murder. Thus situated, his ambitious,
active and restless spirit rendered his condition intolerable
to himself. On the 22nd March, but a few days after he
left forever the presidency of the United States senate, he
wrote to his son-in-law, Mr. Joseph Alston, that he " was
under ostracism. In New-York," said he, " I am to be
disfranchised, and in New-Jersey to be hanged. Having
substantial objections to both, I shall not, for the present,
hazard either, but shall seek another country.'''' Accord-
ingly, early in May, he left Philadelphia for the western
country, and arrived at Lexington, in Kentucky, on the
20th of that month. After travelling with great rapidity
through that state, he directed his course to Nashville, in

BAiff isj.T(BmiE>mim

Wi^

^.

h,4.r-f,\ Z,r/A. /,-,., vf,..

*■,'■,.

'.'<«l

OF NEW-VORK. 249

Tennessee, and from thence he journied through the woods
to Natchez. From Natchez he went by land to New-Or-
leans, where he arrived on the 25th June, 1805. At that
time, Gen. Wilkinson was in that city, or in its neighbor-
hood, and commanded the United States troops stationed
there. It does not appear that he remained long in New-
Orleans, but soon again returned to Lexington, in Ken-
tucky, by the way of Nashville. He was at Cincinnati,
and at several places in Ohio, but in a very short time
made his appearance at St. Louis, in Missouri, and from
thence he travelled to Washington, at which place he ar-
rived on the 29th day of November. These immense
journies he performed in a little more than six months;
before the great western rivers were rendered navigable
by steam, and when the roads were badly constructed;
and through a considerable part of the country traversed
by him there were no roads at all. His movements were
veiled in mystery, and all men wondered what could be
the motive which induced these extraordinary journies.
From January, 1806, to the month of August following,
he spent his time principally in Washington and Philadel-
phia; but, in the month of August, he again set his face
towards the west, and was soon afterwards found in Ken-
tucky.

About this time boats were provided, provisions and
munitions of war were collected, and men were gathering
at different points on the Ohio and Cumberland rivers.
Government now began to be alarmed. Mr. Tiffin, go-
vernor of Ohio, under the advice of the president, (Jeffer-
son,) seized the boats and their cargo, and Burr was ar-
rested in Kentucky; but no sufficient proof appearing
against him he was discharged.

On the 23d January, 1807, Mr. Jefferson sent a mes
sage to congress, accompanied by several affidavits, in
which he gave the history of Burr's transactions, so far as

250 '' POLITICAL HISTORY

they had come to the knowledge of the administration.
The message stated that, on the 2 1st of October, Gen.
Wilkinson wrote to the president that, from a letter he
had received from Burr, he had ascertained that his objects
were, a severance of the union on the line of the Allegany
mountains, an attack upon Mexico, and the establishment
of an independent government in Mexico, of which Burr
was to be the head. That to cover his movements, he had
purchased, or pretended to have purchased, of one Lynch,
a tract of country claimed by Baron Bastiop, lying near
Natchitoches, on which he proposed to make a settlement.
That he had found, by the proceedings of the governor
and people of Ohio and Kentucky, that the western people
were not prepared to join him; but notwithstanding, there
was reason to believe, that he intended, with what force he
could collect, to attack New-Orleans, get the control of
the funds of the bank, seize upon the military and naval
stores w^hich might be found there, and then proceed
against Mexico. The president assured congress that
there was no reason to apprehend that any foreign power
would aid Col. Burr.

A considerable part of the evidence going to show that
Burr entertained criminal designs, depended on the affida-
vit of Wilkinson. It is not my intention to examine into
the proofs of the guilt or innocence of Burr, further than
to remark, that from the character of the vain, vaporing
and unprincipled Wilkinson', as before and since developed,
no dependance can safely be placed upon his statements,
unless supported by strong circumstances, or other evi-
dence; and I believe it will not at this day be doubted,
that if Burr plotted treason, Wilkinson, in the first in-
stance, agreed to be his accomplice; that, as their opera-
tions progressed, he began seriously to doubt of success,
and then communicated his knowledge of the aifair to the
government, in order to save himself, and perhaps obtain

OF NEW-YORK. 251

a reward; and that he falsely represented to the president
that he had feigned a partial acquiescence in the schemes
of Burr, for the purpose of preventing the execution of
his projects. That Burr himself was deceived by Wil-
kinson, there can be no doubt, for had he not been confi-
dent Wilkinson would act with him, would he have sent
a letter to him in cypher, by Swartwout, of the tenor of
the one produced by Wilkinson before the grand jury at
Richmond ? But there was other evidence besides that
of Wilkinson, against Burr, which has never been ex-
plained. His extensive and hurried journies, in the sum-
mer of 1805 J his preparation of boats, munitions of war,
and provisions; his enlistment of men, and the letter in
cypher which he sent to Wilkinson ; what were they
for 1 If his object was merely an attack upon Mexico,
why did he not openly avow" it, when charged and indicted
for treason against his country 1 The one, he knew, was
comparatively a slight misdemeanor, the other, the highest
crime known to the law. Again, unless Col. William
Eaton, the man who had then recently, so gallantly distin-
guished himself on the Barbary coasts, has perjured him-
self. Burr did form a treasonable plot against his country.
Col. Eaton, on the 26th January, deposed, in open court,
held before Judge Cranch and others, at Washington, that
during the preceding winter, (1806,) Burr called upon
him, and, in the first instance, represented, that he was
employed by the government to raise a military force to
attack the Spanish Provinces in North America, and invi-
ted Eaton to take a command in the expedition ; that
Eaton, being a restless, enterprising man, readily acceded
to the proposal; that Burr made frequent calls upon him,
and in his subsequent interviews complained of the ineffi-
ciency and timidity of the government, and, eventually,
fully developed his project; which was to separate the
western states from the union, and establish himself as

252 POLITICAL HISTORY

sovereign of the country; that measures were forthwith to
be taken for the conquest of Mexico; that the control of
the Mexican mines would allure to his standard a host of
gallant and enterprising spirits, both of the old and the
new world; and that Gen. Wilkinson was engaged in the
plot, and was to join him with the troops under his com
mand. According to Eaton, Burr further stated, that if
he oould gain over the marine corps, " and secure Trux-
ton, Preble and Decatur, he would turn congress neck and
heels out of doors, assassinate the president, seize on the
treasury, and declare himself the Protector of an energetic
government;" and he solicited Eaton to endeavor to per-
suade Preble and Decatur to join in the enterprise. Burr
did not succeed in collecting and organizing a force on
the western waters; but, on the 1st day of March, he was
discovered wandering alone in the Tombigbee country,
near the line of Florida, by a man named Perkins, who
found him in the evening at a little tavern. Perkins, at
first, was not certain that the stranger with whom he came
in contact, was Burr, but, on being satisfied that such was
the fact, procured a subordinate officer, who happened to
be stationed there, and a file of seven men, who arrested
the western Emperor, and conveyed him to Richmond.

The trial of the indictment against Burr, for treason,
occupied many weeks, but he was finally acquitted by the
jury, without swearing any witnesses in his defence. The
;acquittal seems to have been on technical grounds. To
convict of treason, proof must not only be made of a trea-
sonable plot, hut of an overt act^ and that act must be
proved by at least two credible witnesses. The overt act
proved, was an assemblage of men at Blanerhassett's
Island in the Ohio river; but it was not proved that Col
Burr was present at that assemblage. This evidence, ac-
cording to the view of the court, was not sufficient to
convict him of an overt act, within the meaning of the

OF NEW-YORK. 253

constitution, and thereupon the jury found this extraordi-
nary verdict, which they refused to modify: —

We, the jury, say that Aaron Burr is not proved to be
guilty, under this indictment^ by any evidence submitted
to us. We, therefore^ find him not guilty." {See 2 Da-
vis ^ 384.)

After his acquittal. Col. Burr appears still to have per-
severed in the project of making an effort to detach Mexico
from the Spanish government.

On the 7th of June, 1808, he sailed from New- York for
Europe, it would seem in the hope of engaging the British
government, to fit out an expedition against Mexico, in
which he would take a part. In this he was entirely un-
successful. His application to the French government
was equally vain and useless. He spent four years wan-
dering about in Europe. Very little attention was paid
to him, and, at times, he was reduced to the greatest ex-
tremity of poverty and wretchedness. On the 8th June,
1812, precisely four years and one day from the time he
left New- York, he again landed in that city. Deserted
by his friends, destitute of the means of living, loaded
with heavy debts, and enervated by age, he opened a law
office, as his only means of procuring his daily bread.
But other, and more appalling misfortunes awaited him.
He had been in New-York but a few days, when he re-
ceived the news of the death of Aaron Burr Alston, the
only child of his only daughter. Even this melancholy
event did not terminate his calamities. A short time after
the tidings of his grandson's death was communicated to
him, his daughter, Mrs. Alston, who seems, from her let-
ters which have been published, to have been a superior
woman, anxious to see and embrace her father, on the 31st
day of December, sailed as a passenger in a schooner
from Charleston, for New-York, which w^as lost on its
passage, and every soul on board pe'-ished. Col. Burr

254 POLITICAL HISTORY

was now in his old age, deprived of character, steeped in
poverty, and the only human beings to whom he could
feel the least tender aflfection, were snatched from him by
death. He was left alone in the world — his cup of calami-
ties was full. I was going to say, the strongest evidence
I have, that he was a great man, is, that he did not sink
imder this accumulation of his misfortunes — this utter
wreck of human hopes. Was it strength of mind or in-
sensibility which prevented it 1 Be this as it may, he did
live; he followed his profession, and mingled in society
for more than twenty years afterwards. He died on the
14th September, 1836, in the eighty-first year of his age.

Col. Burr possessed several traits of character quite
peculiar. One was, an utter indifference to public opinion.
Mr. Davis, (2 Davis^ 379, in a 7iote,) says, that a short
time before his death, and when that event was daily ex
pected, after informing him that his death was hourly
expected by his physician, he asked Col. Burr whether, at
any time, he had contemplated a separation of the union ?
To which, he replied, " No, I would as soon have thought
of taking possession of the moon, and informing my friends
that I intended to divide it among them." But if he was
sincere in that declaration, why did he not furnish Mr.
Davis, who, he probably knew, would write his biography,
with some satisfactory explanation of his western expedi-
tion 1 Why did he not give an account of the reasons of
his negotiations with Wilkinson, and his object in writing
to him the letter in cypher 1 The biography of Davis,
leaves the question, as to the real motives of Burr, as
much in the dark as it was when his trial closed at Rich-
mond; where the jury, who heard the whole of the case,
evidently arrived at the conclusion that Col. Burr, if not
technically, was morally guilty of treason.

Col. Burr seems, through his whole life, to have taken
pains to envelope all his political conduct in mystery.

OF NEW-YORK. 255

He was one of those kind of men, who, if he had a given
end to accomplish, preferred the accomplishment of that
end by indirect, rather than direct means. Many parts of
his life afford proof of even an affectation of intrigue and
mystery, which, instead of being evidence of a great, is
evidence of a weak and little mind. It was an invariable
maxim with him, never to commit anything on politics to
writing. So rigid was his regard to this rule, that, accord-
ing to Mr. Davis, he would not, in writing to his wife,
utter a word on political subjects. Why should not a
man commit to writing his political views, and the princi-
ples of his political action 1 What has an honest man
to fear from it 1 The reasons which induced Col. Burr
to adopt this rule of conduct could not have been founded
either on patriotism or integrity. That he was a man of
great personal bravery there is no doubt. With respect
to his talents there is more difficulty in arriving at a satis-
factory conclusion.

We cannot test the powers of his mind by his writings.
He has left nothing, except the letters written by him to
his wife, daughter, and son-in-law. These letters are
written in an easy, familiar style, and are perfectly suitable
and proper to the connection existing between the writer
and those to whom the letters were addressed. He never
touches upon any serious or grave topic, either religious,
political, or philosophical; yet they are still of that kind
which are perfectly proper to be addressed by a husband
to his wife, or by a parent to his children. They contain
no evidence but that they were written by a man of a high
order of intellect, nor but that they might have been writ-
ten by the most common and ordinary educated man,
acquainted with life. Of course, no opinion can be formed
of the talents of Mr. Burr from the writings he has left.

But, from the year 1783, to the year 1800, Col. Burr
was in pretty full practice as a counsellor at law, and

256 POLITICAL HISTORY

•

from 1812, to within a year or two before his death, he
also generally attended the superior courts of this state.

It is certain, that during the first period of his practice,
he had a high standing at the bar. To have been viewed
by the public as the rival of Gen. Hamilton, may, of itself,
be considered as evidence of great legal learning and
talent; and yet, it must not be forgotten that there were,
during that period, but few democratic lawyers of eminence
in the city of New-York, and that political partialities
may have contributed something towards assigning to Col.
Burr the position which he held. There are gentlemen
now living, who heard him during his best days, who do
not speak of him as having deserved the reputation of a
profound, learned and able forensic debater. " Burr,"
says Mr. John Van Ness Yates, in a note to Thurlow
Weed, written at the request, I presume, of Mr. Davis,
" was persuasive and imaginative. He first enslaved the
heart, then led captive the head, Hamilton addressed
himself to the head only."

These remarks of Mr. Yates were called forth by a re-
quest, coming, I presume, originally from Mr. Davis, that
he would furnish the notes taken by his father, chief jus-
tice Yates, of the argument of Burr, in the celebrated case
of Governeur and Kemble. The copy of the notes of the
chief justice, as given by Mr. Yates, reads as follows: —
{See 2 Davis, 21.)

" Burr for Plaintiff. — I. The great principles of com-
mercial law w'hich apply to this case are" — then follows
a hiatus of some lines, after which, as follows:

" II. The Plaintiff"— another hiatus,

"m." (!!!)

This concludes, says Mr. Yates, all I can find. Mr.
Yates adds, that his father's notes of Gen. Hamilton's ar-
gument are very copious. Whether the eloquence of Col.
Burr was so fascinating and astounding as deprived the

OF NEW-YORK. 257

judge ot the power of taking notes, or whether his argu-
ments were so immethodical and desultory that the learned
judge thought it not worth his while to attempt to follow
him, we are left to conjecture.

As respects the evidence of talents, as an advocate, af-
forded by Col. Burr, after his return from Europe, I can
speak with more confidence. From the year 1812, to the
time of his death, he never made a speech in any of our
courts, which can, with propriety, be called an argument.
In the last period of his professional life he cannot, there-
fore, be said to have merited, and indeed he did not ac-
quire, a standing above mediocrity. He seemed to labor
more to gain advantages by the meshes of technical rules of
practice, by contrivance and trick, than to succeed by
meeting his opponent fairly in the field, and elaborately
discussing the merits of his case. I am quite sure that in
this statement I shall be sustained by every member of
the New-York bar, who was acquainted with Col. Burr.
The conclusion to which I have arrived, is, that in no pe-
riod of his life could he have been a learned lawyer, or a
profound, clear and logical reasoner.

The evidence which he afforded of talents as a politician
and statesman, is equally unsatisfactory. Neither in thft
legislature of this state, nor in the senate of the United
States, did he ever originate any great measure, nor can I
find that he, at any time, distinguished himself in discus-
sing any important question raised by others. His efforts
to obtain the gubernatorial chair of this state, and the
presidency of the United States, and more especially the
latter, I have before had occasion to show, independent of
all questions of principle, were ill judged, and not well
adapted to the accomplishment of the end he must have
had in view. In the project of his western expedition,
whatever his object was, that is, whether he intended an
attack on Mexico, or whether he contemplated a division

n

258 POLITICAL HISTORY

of the union, he gave equal evidence of a want of a sound
and discriminating judgment, in providing means adapted
to the accomplishment of his end.

It does not appear that he had the least prospect of any
foreign aid. He attempted in broad day, with the eyes of
an intelligent community upon him, to raise troops and
collect munitions of war, either to commit hostilities upon
a neighboring power with whom we were at peace, or
make war on his own government. He must have known
he could not move at all in such an enterprise without the
cordial aid of Wilkinson. Considering the known cha-
racter of that man, no discreet person would have done a
single act rendering himself accountable until Wilkinson
had committed himself in such a way as he could not re-
cede. Instead of which. Burr himself admits that he,
the great magician, was deceived by this w^eako windy,
blustering bragadocia. This single fact is evidence that
Burr did not know men so well as he claimed to know
them, and that he was utterly unfit to conduct such an en-
terprize. The explosion of his plot and the facility with
which it was suppressed, in spite of his petty and puerile
efforts to carry it into effect; and his capture by a subal-
tern officer and seven men, furnisha just and proper com-
ment on the ability with whichitwascontrived and attempt-
ed to be executed.

On the whole, my conclusion is, that Aaron Burr was
a man of imposing and fascinating manners, rapid and
quick perceptions, possessed of an uncommon share of
cunning, ambitious, imaginative and reckless about the
means he employed to accomplish his ends; but defective
in the deliberating, comparing and adjudicating powers of
mind. If he was a very cunning man, he was not a very
wise one; and if, at any period of his life he was brilliant
as an orator, he never was a profound reasoner.

OF NEW-YORK. 259

The fate of Col. Eurr presents a solemn memento to
the youthful aspirant for political fame and power. He
may see in Mr. Burr, a young man born of wealthy pa-
rents, of high character for virtue and talents, com-
mencing life with the advantage of an accomplished and
finished education and the most fascinating address; at one
period the idol of a great political party, and in the year
1800, second in influence and popularity only to one man
in America; in 1812, we see the same individual, bank-
rupt in fortune and reputation, who, having wandered for
years among various nations in Europe, had returned to
his native land, detested as a traitor to his country, and
shunned with horror by all good men as a murderer.

Will not the ingenuous mind, in view of such a career,
be forced to the conclusion, that although the mere poli-
tician may extol the tact and address, and management of
a partisan leader, the continued support of the great mass
of the American people, can only be obtained by afford-
ing evidence of honesty and integrity of purpose, and
that virtue and patriotism alone are safe and certain pass-
ports to power and glory.

It has been remarked, that the war between France and
the other European powers, had occasioned a great de-
mand for the bread stuffs produced by the grain growing-
states, which had raised the price of produce in this coun-
try to an amount before unequalled; that as the Ameri-
cans occupied a neutral position, their vessels navigated
freely the ocean, and that thus a considerable portion of
the carrying trade of the belligerents, and particularly of
France, was engrossed by American ship owners. The
strength of the British on the ocean rendered that nation
less dependent than France on this country for carrying
on its transportation. The British were also desirous of
compelling the French to transport their own supplies
and goods in their own vessels, because the French vessels

260 POLITICAL HISTORY

when on the high seas, in all human probability, would
many of them be captured by the British privateers, and
vessels of war. For this reason, and ^vith a view to cur-
tail the neutral trade of the United States, the English
government adopted orders in council, tending to check
and in a manner suppress all intercourse between America
and France. This state of things bore hard, not only upon
America but France, by depriving that nation of supplies
for its army. The French therefore adopted decrees
which rendered American vessels liable to seizure and
condemnation when carrying on what had heretofore been
a lawful trade with Great Britain. The American go-
vernment remonstrated against these orders and decrees
without effect, and under the impression that neither Eng-
land nor France could dispense with the use of our pro-
ductions, Mr. Jefferson recommended an embargo on all
American shipping, until one or both the belligerents
should acknowledge our neutral rights by a repeal of their
obnoxious orders and decrees. Congress adopted the re-
commendation by passing a law in accordance with it.
The embargo bore hard on the northern and middle states,
and particularly on the state of New-York.

It was contended that other and more efficient measures
less injurious to the nation, and especially to the grain
growing and commercial states, than a resort to an em-
bargo for an indefinite period of time, might have been
adopted. Shortly after the passage of this act by con-
gress, a public meeting was held in the city of New-York,
of which De Witt Clinton was chairman, and James
Townsend was secretary, which adopted resolutions dis-
approving of the embargo; and Mr. Cheetham, in the
American Citizen, the Clintonian paper, came out decided-
ly against the measure. The federalists to a man de-
nounced, with great bitterness, the restrictive measures as
juinous to the country. The republicans, however, gene-

•OF NEW-YORK. :261

rally expressed their approbation of the embargo, and it
was not long before the principal and almost the sole
topic of dispute between the two parties, was the question
as to the propriety and fitness of this measure, with which
was connected a dispute whether the British orders in
council were provoked by the French, or whether the
French decrees were not in some degree excusable as a
retaliatory measure to the English orders in council. The
federalists advocated the first position, and the latter was
contended for by the republicans.

While these national questions agitated the public mind,
the legislature convened at Albany. Doct. Alexander
Sheldon was again elected speaker, and Baniel Rodman
clerk. Rodman, the republican candidate, received sixty
votes, and Mr. G. Y. Lansing, the former clerk, twenty-
one. This vote may be considered .as evidence of the
strength of parties in the assembly.

The speech of the new governor was well written. It
presented a succinct and clear view of the controversy
between the American government and the belligerents of
Europe, and decidedly approved of the embargo as the
most safe and efficient means of causing both the English
and French to respect our national rights.

In the assembly, when discussing the answer of that
body to the governor's speech, upon that part of it which
advocated the embargo laws, a warm debate ensued, but
in accordance with the views of the governor, was adopt-
ed by a vote of sixty-two to twenty-two.

On the first day of February, the assembly made choice
of a council of appointment, consisting of Benjamin Coe
from the southern, Peter C. Adams from the middle, Johr
Veeder from the eastern, and Nathan Smith of the west
ern districts.

The council immediately proceeded to the work for
(which they were created. They removed Dr. TillotsoK

262 POLITICAL HISTORY

from the office of secretary of state, and appointed Elisha
Jenkins. They restored Mr. Clinton to the Mayoralty of
New-York; they removed Maturin Livingston from the
office of recorder, and appointed P. C. Van Wyck to that
office. Sylvanus Miller, who had been by Gov. Lewis re-
moved from the office of surrogate of New-York to make
place for Ogden Edwards, was restored to his former
place, and eleven other removals and appointments were
made on the same day.

By the election of Mr. Tompkins to the office of go
vernor, another vacancy was caused on the bench of the
supreme court, and to fill that vacancy Joseph C. Yates
was appointed. This appointment occasioned some sur-
prise to the members of the bar. Though perfectly amia-
ble as a citizen, Judge Yates was not much known as a
lawyer. This appointment was said to have been pro-
cured principally by, the influence of the country members
of the legislature, among whom he was much esteemed,
and especially by Mr. Veeder, who was a member of the
council and his warm and personal friend. Mr. Clinton
was almost the only prominent man who advocated his
appointment. Mr. Woodworth, although he had from his
boyhood been a zealous republican, was, because he sup-
ported Gov. Lewis, within a few days after the first or-
ganization of the council, removed from the office of at-
torney general, and Matthias B. Hildreth of Johnstown,
appointed in his place.

I observe from the minutes of the council that on the
18th of March, John W. Taylor and Samuel Young, men
who have since made a distinguished figure in political life,
were appointed justices of the peace for the town of
Ballston in Saratoga, and that on the 20th of the same
month Martin Van Buren, who has been still more dis-
tinguished, was appointed surrogate of the county of Co-

OF NEW-YORK 263

lumbia. These, I presume, were the first civil offices
held by these gentlemen.

This council proceeded to send new general commis-
sions of the peace into many of the counties, and in the
course of a few months brought about almost an entire
change of persons holding civil offices in the state. Such
was the power of this strange, and formidable machine
called the council of appointment.

The legislature seems to have been effectually imbued
with the same spirit which governed the council. There
was one state office, and only one, over whose tenure
the constitution gave them control. It was the treasurer.
That office was then held by Abraham G, Lansing, an up-
right, responsible and capable man. Him the legislature
promptly removed, and appointed David Thomas, late a
member of congress from Washington county, in his
place.

Mr, De Witt Clinton, shortly before or after his arrival
in Albany, renounced his opposition to the embargo laws,
and professed his approbation of the measures of the
general administration. For this he was severely abused
by the federalists, and by his quondam friend Mr. Cheet-
ham, who persisted as editor of the American Citizen, in
his opposition, and charged Mr. Clinton with bad faith, in
persuading him to take the stand he had taken on the
question, and then of abandoning him. I can perceive no
just cause for this abuse. The embargo presented a great
question of national policy, of which Mr. Clinton at first
formed an unfavorable opinion, but upon more reflection,
he judged differently. Had he not a right, and was it not
his duty, thus to do 1 Having changed his opinion on
the subject, as an honest man, he was bound to act accord-
ing to the convictions of his own conscience.

The second term of Mr. Jefferson as president of the
United States, would expire on the -Sd of March, 1805,

264 POLITICAL HISTORY

and a new president was to be elected in December, 1808.
It was the fashion of the day to designate the candidate
for president by a congressional caucus; and James Madi-
son was nominated by such caucus. This nomination
gave offence to the vice-president, George Clinton, and his
friends. George Clinton was by the same caucus again
nominated for vice-president.

Seventeen republican members of congress protested
against this nomination. Some of the protestors were
from the state of New-York, among whom were John
Russel, Josiah Masters, George Clinton, Jr., brother to
De Witt, and Peter Swart.

The Albany Register, at that time conducted by Mr.
Southwick, who acted in every thing in concert with De
Witt Clinton, declared its confidence in Mr. Madison, but
at the same time expressed an opinion that the presidency
was due to the vice-president, Mr. Clinton. On the 5th
of March, the vice-president wrote from W^ashington to a
friend in Albany, probably De Witt Clinton, no doubt
with a view that his letter should be published, stating
that he was not consulted about the nomination, and had
neither refused or consented to be a candidate. He did
not, he said, even know of the caucus till the day on the
evening of which it was held, when he accidentally
saw a notice signed by Stephen Roe Bradley, summon-
ing one of the members to attend. I observe that the
Albany Register, shortly afterwards, (25th of March,)
spoke with some bitterness of the policy of Virginia, and
charged the Virginians with cherishing an opinion that no
one out of that state was fit for the first office in the
nation.

On the other hand, so early as the winter of 1806, 1
observe an article copied from the Richmond Enquirer
into the Evening Post, describing the enormous power
-vielded by De Witt Clinton in this state, and alluding; to

OF NEW-YORK. 265

the fact that, besides being a senator and member of the
council of appointment J he held the office of mayor of
New-York, which it alleged was worth twelve thousand
dollars a year. I mention these circumstances, to show
the origin of the jealousies and the eventual hostility
between Mr. De Witt Clinton and the Virginia dynasty,
as it was afterwards called.

The legislature adjourned on the 11th of April, but be-
fore separating, the republican members signed an address,
in which they justified the measures of the administration,
and urged its support. The address was signed by eighty-
nine members.

The effect of the embargo, among other things, was to
reduce the price of wheat from two dollars to seventy-
five cents per bushel. This roused the attention of the
people, and they listened with eagerness to the arguments
of the federalists. That party rallied with great vigor in
almost every county in the state, and obtained a considera-
ble accession of strength in the assembly, but the repub-
lican party still retained a majority in that house. From
the eastern district, David Hopkins, a federalist was elect-
ed, and from the middle, Edward P. Livingston, a Lewisite,
was chosen. Benjamin Coe and William W. Gilbert,
from the southern, and Luther Rich, Francis Bloodgood,
Sylvester Smally, Walter Martin and Silas Halsey from
the western districts, all republicans, were this year elect-
ed to the senate.

266 POLITICAL HISTORY

CHAPTER XIII.

FROM MAY 1, 1S08, TO MAY 1, 1809.

John Quincy Adams, who had been elected a senator
of the United States, by the legislature of Massachusetts,
a majority of whom were federalists, and of course were
opposed to the embargo law, in the winter of 1808, had
addressed a letter to Harrison Gray Otis, in which he de-
clared himself in favor of that measure, and set forth at
large his reasons for supporting it. This letter was
republished in all the principal democratic newspapers
in the state of New- York ; and, as it was written with
great ability, and the standing and character of the wri-
ter entitled him to much respect, it had a considerable
influence on the public mind. Still, however, a large
majority of the people of Massachusetts were warmly
opposed to the embargo laws, and Mr, Adams, under these
circumstances, thought it his duty to give back to the le-
gislature the power w^ith which they had invested him,
inasmuch as a question had arisen, subsequent to his elec-
tion, in which he could not, in conscience, carry into ef-
fect the will of his constituents. He, therefore, on the
eighth of June, resigned his place in the United States
senate, in order to afford the legislature an opportunity of
choosing a representative whose political principles ac-
corded with the majority of that body.

The Livingstons, and a majority of the prominent re
publican friends of Gov. Lewis, as well as Mr. Lewis
himself, in connection with Col. Swartwout, M. L. Davis,
and other leading Burrites in New- York, came out in
support of the general administration, and they particularly
^xianifested their zeal in behalf of Mr. Madison as the

OF NEW-YORK. 267

next candidate for the presidency. In their anxiety to
sustain Mr. Madison, they assailed Mr. De Witt Clinton,
charging him with hypocrisy in professions of approbation
of the embargo law, and with direct hostility to the elec-
tion of Mr. Madison. In this they were sustained by
several leading newspapers in other states. A newspaper
printed at Washington, called the " Washington Monitor,"
edited by Mr. Colvin, a clerk in the office of the secretary
of state, (Mr. Madison being then secretary,) a man of
talents, but extremely lax in his moral principles, and
irregular in his habits, enlisted, with the most asperity, in
this warfare. These editors, in their animadversions and
strictures, did not confine their attacks to De Witt Clinton,
but extended their denunciations to the venerable vice-
president and Judge Spencer. The appointments, too,
which w^ere made by the general government, began to
assume an aspect of preference to those Burrites and Lew-
isites, in New-York, who were known to be personally
hostile to Mr. Clinton,

John Barber, the proprietor and editor of the Albany
Register, died on the 15th July, and the sole management
of that paper then devolved upon Solomon Southwick,
which greatly added to the influence which the personal
address and zeal of that gentleman had before given him,
in the republican party. Mr. Barber, as a correct and
virtuous citizen, was highly esteemed, and his death was
deeply lamented.

The fall elections afforded evidence of the increase of
federal strength in the New-England states. The state of
Vermont elected a federal governor, and a majority of
federalists in the legislature.

The New-Yoi'k legislature met on the first of November,
for the purpose of choosing presidential electors.

Doct. Sheldon having been beaten at the election in
April, the federalists having obtained a majority in Mont-

268 POLITICAL HISTORY

gomery county, Gen. James W. Wilkin of Orange county,
was chosen speaker, in opposition to Mr. Van Rensselaer,
the federal candidate. The result of the hallot was, for
Wilkin, sixty, for Van Rensselaer, forty-five. This vote
may be considered as an evidence of the strength of par-
ties in the assembly.

The governor's speech did not contain any thing which
particularly requires notice. He reiterated his approba-
tion of the general administration, and again urged a sup-
port of its measures.

A considerable portion of the democratic party, were
for giving the vote of the state to George Clinton for the
office of president; others insisted that such a step would
be unwise, if not positively wrong; that it would exhibit
division in the ranks of the republicans in the nation ;
would excite jealousy and unkind feelings among the re-
publican friends of Mr. Madison, and ultimately impair
the just influence of the republicans of this state with their
brethren in other states; while a vote for Mr. Clinton
would be of no possible use to him, as it was morally
certain Mr. Madison would be elected. It was, it would
seem, finally agreed that the electors should be chosen
without reference to their opinions on this question, leav-
ing it to them to cast their votes either for Mr. Madison
or George Clinton, as they might think expedient.

Ambrose Spencer and Henry Huntington headed the
electoral ticket which was nominated and elected. Even-
tually six of the electors of this state, voted for George
Clinton for president, and the residue for Mr. Madison.

The result of the presidential vote in the nation for
president, was, for James Madison, one hundred and
twenty-two votes; Charles C. Pinckney, forty-eight ;
George Clinton, six. For vice-president, George Clinton
received one hundred and thirteen votes; Rufus King,

OF NEW-YORK. 269

forty-eight; John Langdon, nine;* James Madison, three;t
James Monroe, three. f

The legislature, after choosing electors, adjourned,
without attempting to transact any other business of im-
portance.

From the moment when it was known that Gov. Tomp-
kins had been elected, the Lewisites and Burrites had
prosecuted a very vigorous personal opposition to Mr.
Clinton. The dissatisfaction of the vice-president with
the nomination of Mr. Madison for the office of president;
the inclination manifested by many of Mr. Clinton's friends
in this state, to support Mr. Geo. Clinton, in opposition
to the caucus nomination; and the disapprobation of the
embargo laws, early manifested by Mr. Clinton, and in-
deed by the vice-president,! gave color to that opinion.
But their most effectual means of recruiting their force
and increasing their strength, was from the disappointed
office seekers. Every man who failed in getting an ap-
pointment for which he was an applicant, was instructed
to charge his defeat to Mr. Clinton, and as the applicant
for office is always the last man to impute his ill success
to his own unfitness, this advice was generally followed,
while the persons who were so fortunate as to obtain ap-
pointments, were taught that they owed their success to
Gov. Tompkins.

Tompkins himself professed to have nothing to do with

* The votes of New-Hampshire.

t The votes of New-York.

J In the winter of 1808, Mr. Charles R. Webster published, in the Albany Ga-
zette, a statement of an interview between him and Wm. Dunning, a democratic
senator from the middle district, substantially alleging that he, (Dunning,) had
received a letter from the vice-president disapproving of the embargo. To thisj
Mr. Dunning interposed an evasive denial; but he declined stating what the con-
versation was, as he insisted that it was confidential. He says Mr. Webster did
not see the vice-president's letter, but he does not publish the letter, or pretend
to state what it contained. From the statement it is fair to infer that the vice-
president did, in a letter to Mr. Dunning, express himself unfavorable to the em-
bargo laws.

270 POLITICAL HISTORY

this personal warfare; indeed, he claimed to be the per-
sonal as well as political friend of Mr. Clintcnj but the
circumstance that Mr. Mangle Minthorne, the father-in-law
of the governor, and a wealthy citizen of New-York, was
a leader in these attacks, and generally chairman of the
meetings of the Martling men, as Mr. Clinton's opponents
were called, induced considerable suspicion that Mr. Tomp-
kins secretly encouraged these assaults, which now evi-
dently appeared to be the result of a regular system, or
plot, which had for its object the political prostration of
Mr. Clinton.

A little before the winter session of the legislature, a
public meeting of the friends of the national administration
was notified to be held in the city of New-York. In
order to create jealousy in the minds of the republican
members of the legislature, then about to convene, and to
impair the influence of Mr. Clinton among them, the fol-
lowing article appeared in a paper which was the organ
of Mr. Clinton's opponents in New-York, called the Pub-
lic Advertiser: —

«A CAUTION AGAINST SURPRISE."

" An abominable intrigue is said to be in contemplation
to place Mr. De Witt Clinton in the chair of the intended
republican meeting.

" A measure so obnoxious to the republicans would de-
stroy the harmony of the meeting. If De Witt Clinton
should be offered, he will be opposed and rejected with
disdain.

" There can be no possible objection to Mr. Clinton's
supporting the general government, provided he has re-
nounced his errors: but he must inspire more confidence
before he can expect to attain the honorable station of a
republican chairman.

" A more uniform character ought to be selected. Be-
fore Mr. Clinton is received, he must unequivocally

OF NEW- YORK. 271

renounce his connection with Cheethamj Masters, Mum-
ford and Van Cortlandt.*

" It is hoped there is not a member of the general
committee that will, for a moment, think of a measure
which would be decisively opposed, and viewed as an
insult to the public understanding.

" Let it be remembered that Mr. Clinton officiated as
the chairman of a general meeting which censured the
conduct of James Cheetham; that his consenting to serve,
appears to have been a mere cover, for since that period
he has been as intimate with Cheetham as he ever was.

" Republican proceedings should be open, frank and
dignified. The people cannot be deceived by the little
tricks and stratagems of -petit politicians. Beware of
intrigues."

I find the above extract copied into the Register of the
24th January, 1809. The Register characterises the arti-
cle in the Advertiser as a base libel. It says that the
Advertiser, when the article was penned, knew that it was
impossible that Mr. Clinton could be chairman of the
meeting referred to, because it was publicly known that
he was to leave New-York for Albany, in order to take his
seat in the senate, before the day appointed for the meet-
ing in New-York,

The adjourned legislature met on the 27th of January.

Four days after the session commenced, (Jan. 31,) Mr.
Clinton, probably partly with a view to disprove the
allegations of the Martling men that he was opposed to
the republican party in the nation, brought into the senate
a series of resolutions, approving of the general adminis-
tration, and pledging the state for its support.

These resolutions, upon their introduction, were sup-
ported by Mr. Clinton by an elaborate and able speech.

* Messrs. Mumford, Masters and Van Cortland, were members of congress who
voted against the embargo, and also protesters against the nomination of Madison.

272 POLITICAL HISTORY

He reviewed the controversy between this country and
the European belligerents, and he showed that America
could not, consistent with her independence and dignity
as a nation, any longer submit to a violation of our neu-
tral rights. He traced the causes of the difficulties to the
mal-conduct of Great Britain, and he insisted that the
embargo and non-intercourse laws were the safest and
most proper measures to which, under the circumstances,
the government could resort. He condemned the violent
opposition of Massachusetts and the other eastern states,
to the embargo laws; he deprecated the measures which
the federalists in that quarter were pursuing, as tending
to a division of the union; and it was on this occasion,
that he made, as applicable to the governing principle of
the eastern federalists, his celebrated quotation from Mil-
ton—

" Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven."

In the assembly, counter resolutions condemnatory of
the embargo and of the whole restrictive system, were,
about the same time, introduced by the federalists.

In that body, the federalists had not only become
respectable as to numbers, but they had several men
deservedly distinguished for their talents. Abraham
Van Vechten was a member from the county of Alba-
ny. The great talents and high standing of Mr. Van
Vechten are too well known to require any description,
and the same remark is applicable to Daniel Cady, a
member from Montgomery county, who is still living.
The latter gentleman has devoted an unusually long pro-
fessional life to the practice of law, and has acquired a
reputation, as a lawyer, of inestimable value. He never
suffered political pursuits for one moment to divert him
from the industrious and faithful discharge of his profes-
sional duties.

Mr. Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer, from the county of

OF NEW-YOnK. 273

Columbia, was also a member of the same assembly. Mr.
Van Rensselaer was not so distinguished in his profession,
(he was bred a lawyer,) as the other two gentlemen, but
he was a man of talents, and a bold, active, and most
zealous politician. Under the lead of these gentlemen, a
furious war was carried on against the political majority
in the state, and against the general administration. On
the other hand, the republican side of the question was
well and ably sustained, in the assembly, by Nathan San-
ford, afterwards chancellor, Roger Skinner, afterwards
United States judge, Obadiah German, D. L. Van Ant-
werp, and others.

The resolutions condemnatory of the embargo, and the
measures of the administration generally, were eventually
rejected, and those introduced by Mr. Clinton were adopted
by both houses: in the senate, without a division, and in
the assembly by a vote of sixty-one to forty-one.

A council of appointment was chosen on the 30th of
January. The senators elected, w^ere Jonathan Ward of
the southern district, James G. Graham of the middle,
Isaac Kellogg of the eastern, and Alexander Rhae of the
western. No important appointments were made this
year.

Solomon Southwick was made sheriff of the city and
county of Albany. At that time Mr. Southwick's popu-
larity and influence were sufficient to command almost any
office within the gift of the republican party.

The voluntary suspension, by the act of the government,
of the exportation of the surplus produce of the country,
by the embargo and non-intercourse laws, annoyed and
disturbed the ship owmer; for his capital, invested in ships,
was rapidly wasting by the decay and rotting of his ships
in port, without affording him one cent of profit; the im-
porting merchant was arrested in his business, because the

annihilation of the exporting business deprived him of all

18

274 POLITICAL HISTORY

means of remittance; and the farmer felt grievously the
effects of the restrictive system in the failure of any de-
mand for his productions, and in the very great reduction
in the price of every article, which could be sold at all, in
market.

The eastern states boldly took the ground that an em-
bargo, for an unlimited period of time, was unconstitu-
tional; inasmuch as the constitution merely authorised
congress to regulate commerce, but an indefinite embargo
was an aiinihilation of it.

In addition to all these causes of complaint against the
embargo system, there was another, which disgusted some
of its original friends. Such was the extent of the Ameri-
can coasts, and so numerous were our ports, that it was
impossible to enforce the law. Honest men obeyed it,
and suffered by it; but the knave evaded it, and pocketed
large profits as a reward for his temerity in violating the
laws of his country. It was said, and perhaps justly
said, that a legislator was bound to know whether a law
could, or could not, be executed ; that he merited the
condemnation of his constituents, when he enacted a law
which the event proved could not be executed ; and that
his failing to foresee the event was an evidence of his in-
capacity to legislate.

But no mere argument will produce an effect on the
people like actual, palpable pecuniary loss. The mer-
chant who fails in business, and the farmer, the price of
whose wheat, or other article, sinks on his hands to one-
half the former price, are extremely apt to charge on the
men who manage the afiairs of the government their
unwelcome reverses of fortune. They readily conclude
that a change of men can scarcely make things worse, and
may make them better.

Had the federalists confined their oppositiion to the
measures adopted by government to repel the aggressions

OF NEW-YORK. 275

of the European belligerents on our commerce: that is to
say, the embargo and non-intercourse laws; it seems to
me they must have carried a majority of the American
people; but, unfortunately for their success, they continu-
ally insisted that we had little or no cause of complaint
against Great Britain, and that France was the principal
aggressor. If, then, they contended, America must have
a war, it ought to be a war with the French, and not the
British.

This, was a revival of the old contest of 1798, and of
course, roused into action the democratic feeling which
operated so intensely on the minds of men during that
period. Nay, more, it was calling out the remnant of
revolutionary feeling which then existed. Our mothers
had taught us in our cradles that the British were our en-
emies. It was difficult for the most adroit politician to
teach us a different and adverse lesson.

Still, there were many republicans so disgusted with
the restrictive measures, that they abandoned their party.
Some respectable Lewisites and Burrites could not be
induced again to act with a party, who, in their judgment,
had, without any cause, opposed the election of their fa-
vorite gubernatorial candidates; and there were, no doubt,
many other disappointed applicants for office, who, from
resentment, or from having lost all hope of participating*
in the spoils with the ruling party, sought a change, with
the certainty that no change could make their situation
worse, but that a revolution of parties might better their
condition.

The republican party were by no means inactive. Pub-
lic meetings were held, and the most vigorous efforts were
made to sustain the national and state administrations.
Legislative addresses, of both parties, w^ere drawn and
published, and circulated in every part of the state, but
the election finally resulted in the triumph of the federal

276 POLITICAL HISTORY

party — the first triumph which, as a party, they had
achievedj since the year 1799.

In the assembly the federalists obtained a majority, and
in the eastern and western districts federal senators were
elected. Israel Carle was elected from the southern,
Samuel Haight and Johannus Bruyn from the middle,
Daniel Parris and John Stearns from the eastern, and Jo-
nas Piatt, Seth Phelps and Amos Hall from the western
districts.

The result of the vote was as follows: —

Districts. Kep. Maj.

Southern, 840

Middle, 816

Districts. Fed. Maj.

Eastern, 534

Western, 391

1656 925

From this statement it appears that the republican ma-
jority of freeholders, in the state, was but seven hundred
and thirty-one.

Gen. Obadiah German was, during the session of 1809,
elected senator of the United States, as the successor of
Doct. Mitchell. His election was not anticipated. John
Tayler, and several other prominent republicans, were spo-
ken of as candidates, but the western part of the state
claimed that the United States senator should be taken
from that quarter, and Gen. German had deservedly ac-
quired much influence in the legislature, having been for
a considerable time a member. Although an uneducated
man, he was distinguished for strong and vigorous intel-
lectual powers; while his frank and independent course,
as a legislator, secured to him the friendship and respect
of his fellow" members. Mr. Clinton was said to have
been friendly to his nomination and election.

OF NEW-YORK. 277

CHAPTER XIV.

FROM MAY 1, 1809, TO MAY 1, 1810.

The chief of the French government had stipulated that
whenever the British government should rescind their
orders in council, as respected the American trade, he
would revoke his Berlin and Milan decrees; and in the
month of April, Mr. Erskine, the English minister at
Washington, had entered into a treaty with the American
government, that the orders in council should be repealed
on the tenth day of June then next.

The president immediately issued a proclamation set-
ing forth the substance of the treaty, and announcing that
the embargo and other restrictive statutes would be re-
pealed, according to a proviso contained in those acts, on
the same tenth day of June.

This proclamation was received with great joy all over
America; but the republican party, especially, hailed the
news with triumph, claiming it as a demonstration of the
efficacy of the embargo laws, which the federalists, as co-
ercive measures, had so bitterly and unsuccessfully de-
nounced. The republicans, with great confidence, ascribed
this happy (supposed) termination of our foreign disputes
to the firmness and wisdom of the national administration.
But the news did not arrive in time to have much effect on
the April election. It came to the polls in the town where I
then resided and now reside, which is but fifty miles from
Albany, on the second day of the election, directed to me
in a hand bill form. I instantly made it known, but the
federalists denied its truth, and charged it as a sheer elec-
tioneering trick. The same course was taken by the fede-
ralists at most other polls, in the state where the news ar-

278

POLITICAL HISTORY

rived before the election terminated. Many federalists
■were undoubtedly sincere in their belief that the procla-
mation -was forged, for considerable sums of money were
lost by bets upon its genuineness.

The tenth of June was celebrated in most of the cities
and counties in the state, as a day of triumph of the re-
publican party; but that triumph was of but short dura-
tion, for the British government disavowed the authority
of Mr. Erskine to enter into such an arrangement, and
peremptorily refused to carry into effect the stipulations
of their minister, by a repeal or even the slightest modifi-
cation of the orders in council.

This disavowal was received by the American govern-
ment and the republican party in general, with deep in-
dignation; and they charged, in no measured terms, the
British cabinet with a palpable breach of public and
pledged faith. The federalists too, were much mortified
and chagrined, for they had all along apologised for every
act of Great Britain, but in this instance their ingenuity
was severely taxed to invent an excuse for the conduct of
Great Britain. They finally settled down upon the plan
of charging the president with enteringinto an engagement
with Mr. Erskine with a full knowledge that he had no
power to make it, and they therefore agreed that the pre-
sident and not the British government was culpable.

The federalists, in order to carry on the war with more
vigor, induced Mr. Harry Croswell, a gentleman of talents
and great power as a political writer, who had printed and
conducted the " BALA^XE" at Hudson for many years,
and who we have seen was indicted for a libel on Mr.
Jefferson, to remove to Albany and there issue a party
paper entitled the " Balance and New-York Journal."

In the city of New-York, Mr. Cheetham, in the Ameri-
can Citizen, continuing to oppose the embargo, that paper
declined, and in fact ceased to be recognized as a reoubli-

OF NEW-YORK. 279

can paper. To supply its place, Mr. Charles Holt, who
had been indicted for sedition in Connecticut under the ad-
ministration of Mr. Adams, established a Clintonian repub-
lican paper called the Columbian, in the city of New-
York.

Newspapers are to political parties in this country what
working tools are to the operative mechanic. I do not
speak this intending any want of respect for party editors.
As a class of citizens they are respectable, and many of
them possess talents of high order. I merely state the
fact, as an excuse for occupying the time of the reader in
this history of parties, in occasional notices of newspapers
and their editors.

A governor was to be elected in April, 1810, and the
federalists took an early position in the field. On the 5th
of January, a large and respectable meeting was held in
Albany, of which Abraham Van Vechten was chairman,
and at w^hich Jonas Piatt was nominated for governor.
Mr. Piatt was a lawyer, highly respectable for talents,
and great purity of character. He was a pioneer in the
country west of Albany, for although Whitesborough, his
place of residence, is now quite in the interior, and rather
easterly of the centre of population in the state, in 1790,
or about that time, when Gen. Piatt established himself
there, it was a frontier settlement. He had, therefore,
grown up and grown great with the great west. Proba-
bly the hope of obtaining a strong vote in the old western
district, which until the last election had been considered
the stronghold of republicanism, was one reason for the
selection of a candidate residing in that district, and the:
unexpected success of Mr. Piatt, in his election as senator,
was proof of his personal popularity, and indicated him
as the most suitable candidate residing in that quarter, for
the office of governor

280 POLITICAL HISTORY

Nicholas Fish was afterwards nominated as the federal
candidate for lieutenant governor.

The legislature met on the 30th of January. Gen.
William North, of Duansburgh, was the federal candidate
for speaker, and chosen over William Livingston, the
democratic candidate, by a vote of fifty-seven to fort}'--
three, showing a federal majority in the assembly of four-
teen.

The governor in his speech reviewed the controversy
of the United States with the belligerents of Europe,
pointed out the injuries which this country had sustained
by a violation of its neutral rights, and justified the course
pursued by the general administration. He spoke favora-
bly of the success of the experiment then being made by
domestic manufacturies, and he recommended legislative
encouragement of the companies engaged in them. He
urged the attention of the legislature to the common
shool fund, and he concluded by recommending harmony
and unanimity of action.

When parties in a legislative body are nearly equally
divided, a recommendation of unity and harmony is em-
])hatically " words, words, words," and nothing else.

The assembly forthwith proceeded to the choice of a
council of appointment, and Israel Carl of the southern,
Robert Williams of the middle, Daniel Parris of the east-
ern, and Amos Hall of the western districts were elected.
Mr. Parris and Gen, Hall, were federalists, but Mr. Wil-
liams was elected to the senate as a republican. There
was not at that time a single federalist in the senate from
either the southern or middle districts. Hence the ma-
jority in the assembly were compelled to choose senators,
for members of the council from those districts, who
were elected as republicans. Mr. Carl was frank and
decided, and possessed a character for sincerity and fiun-
ness which excluded all suspicion that he would swerve

OP NEW-YORK 281

from an honorable republican course. Not so with Mr.
Williams. He had been wavering in his politics, and
had alternately been a Burrite, Lewisite and Clinto-
nian. He was, in fact, suspected to be a political huck-
slerjhls subsequent conduct proved him to be such. He
had, however, carefully concealed his intentions from the
political friends with whom he professed to act, so much
so, that after his election many republicans had full confi-
dence that he would be true to their interest; but upon
the first meeting of the council, on the second day of
February, all doubts were removed, and Mr. Williams
fully exhibited the political character which he meant there-
after to assume. At that first meeting, the attorney general,
secretary of state, recorder of Albany, mayor, recorder,
district attorney and surrogate of New-York, were re-
moved, and Abraham Van Vechten was appointed attor-
ney general; Daniel Hale, secretary of state; Theodore
V. W. Gi'aham, recorder of Albany; Jacob RadclifF,
mayor of "New-York; J. 0. Hoffman, recorder; C. D.
Colden, district attorney, and John W. Mulligan, surro-
gate of New- York. The surrogate of Dutchess county,
James Talmadge, was removed, and Thomas J. Oakley, the
son-in-law of Mr. Williams, but a young lawyer of high-
ly respectable talents and character, was appointed in his
place. Several minor removals and appointments were
also made this day.

The indignation of the republicans against Williams
was everywhere intense, but in no part of the state was
that indignation nearer bursting forth into open outrage
than in his own district. The very friends who exerted
their influence, employed their time and expended their
money to procure his election, were those , who, by his
casting vote, were ejected from office — office upon the
emoluments of which some of them depended for the sup-
port of their families. He was stigmatized as a traitor

282 POLITICAL HISTORY

and labeled as a Judas Iscariot. AVho would purchase
short-lived power at such a price? Mr. Williams, though
a man of considerable activity, address and enterprise,
after he ceased to be a member of the council, was neglect-
ed by all parties, and was never afterwards heard of in
political life. His fate should operate as a beacon to
young politicians. The public are too just to condemn
any individual for his political opinions, provided he ex-
presses them frankly and supports them fairly. It is con-
cealment, hypocrisy and treachery, which are in politics
the unpardonable sin, a sin which merits and generally
receives a condemnation which is perpetual.

This council was purely federal, unembarrassed with
the scruples or timidity which crippled the action of the
council of which Lewis was president in 1807. It was
very thorough, and as a Washington newspaper editor at
a late day would have said, " searching''' in its operations.
Clerks of counties, sheriffs, district attorneys, judges of
courts of common pleas, surrogates, and justices of the
peace, were generally made to feel its power.

The assembly very properly passed a bill re-appointing
Abraham G. Lansing as treasurer, in which the senate
concurred.

On the 5th of February, a legislative caucus of the re-
publican members was held, at which Tompkins and
Broome were nominated for re-election. The address
was drawn by De Witt Clinton, and signed by all the repub-
lican members of the legislature, and several citizens who
happened to be in attendance. The whole number of
signers of the address was one hundred and thirty-six.

The answer reported in the assembly to the governor's
speech, was severe, almost to indecorum. It attacked
with great asperity the national administration. It charged,
that we had more cause of war with France than Great

OF NEW-YORK. 283

Britain, and that the government had not pursued an im-
partial course towards the belligerents.

A substitute responsive to the governor's speech was
offered by Doct. Mitchell from New-York. An able and
widely extended debate ensued, conducted principally on
the federal side by Messrs. Van Vechten, Cady and
Grosvenor. The gentleman last mentioned, was a new
member from Columbia county, w^ho, as a member of the
New-York legislature, and afterwards as a member of con-
gress, distinguished himself as one of the most splendid
orators of the age. His life, though brilliant, was short.
He died w'hile a member of congress in 1817.

On the republican side of the house, the debate was
carried on principally by Doct. Mitchell, Roger Skinner
of Washington county, D. L. Van Antwerp of Schenec-
tady, and O. P. Comstock of Seneca county, a son of the
worthy Adam Comstock of Saratoga county.

I happened to be present and heard the speech of Doct.
Mitchell. His argument afforded evidence of much read-
ing, considerable ability, and great benevolence of heart;
and yet we thought it smelt of the shop, for in speaking
of preparations for war, and the resources of this coun-
try, he had occasion to state that an abundance of salt
petre might be found among us. This led him to give
the history of the discovery of the art of making gun-
powder, and the chemical laws which governed that pro-
cess, so that before the good Doctor was aware of it, he
appeared entirely to have forgotten the orders in council,
the Berlin and Milan decrees, and the federal and republi-
can parties, and was transferred to his chemical laboratory,
delivering a lecture to his students on the affinities of
bodies. The address, as reported by the select committee,
was finally carried by a vote of fifty-nine to forty-six.

In the senate, a select committee had reported an an-
swer to the governor's speech, responsive to it, for which

284 POLITICAL HISTORY

Gen. Piatt offered a substitute, which was supported by
himself and Mr. Parris, with considerable ability. They
were answered by Mr. Clinton and Judge Tayler. The
course of argument pursued by Mr. Clinton and Judge
Tayler, tended to charge on the federalists an overwean-
ing attachment to Great Britain, and indeed they accused
them with taking sides with the British against their own
country. I heard Mr. Tayler's speech, and in the course
of it, or rather towards the close, probably in order to
teep alive the revolutionary prejudices against the British,
he o;ave a detailed account of their neo-otiations with the
Indians, about the time of the commencement of the war
of the revolution, and w^hich resulted in an agreement be-
tween the parties, that the Indians should become the al-
lies of the British; and he thence charged the English
with being responsible for the depredations and murders
committed by the savages. Mr. Tayler then proceeded
to give an account of the patriotic services and great sa-
crifices and sufferings of Mr. Parris the father of the
senator, during the revolutionary war, and finally of his
treacherous and barbarous murder by the Indians. " And
now," said Mr. Tayler, "I am surprised and grieved to
see the son of my beloved venerated revolutionary friend
in this senate pleading the British cause."

Mr. Parris, who was a man of high and honorable feel-
ings, was much excited, and replied with great asperity
to Mr. Tayler.

Judge Tayler was a man of great tact and discernment,
and I give this part of his speech to show the kind of ar-
gument resorted to and the feeling called out in this poli-
tical contest.

The substitute of Gen. Piatt was rejected in the senate
by a vote of twenty-three to six.

The legislature adjourned on the 6th day of April,
without having passed any important general laws.

OF NEW-YOOIK. 285

The annual election, as usual when a governor was to
be elected, was sharply contestedj but the circumstances
under which this election was held, were calculated to
call into action an uncommon degree of zeal. The great
question as to the merits of the measures of the national
government, was of immense importance, and was to
be passed on by the people, but this was not all, nor
perhaps so much the immediate cause of the high excite-
ment, as the fact that the federalists had just got a taste
of the loaves and fishes, and the republicans had been
recently ejected. Indeed, it was a life and death ques-
tion with the federalists. If they could elect Gen. Piatt,
they could retain the power of which they had had barely
time to taste. If Tompkins should be elected they were
prostrated for an indefinite period of time. No wonder
then they struggled as it were for life. On the other
hand, the republicans had been recently ejected from office,
which only sharpened their appetite for power, and their
zeal in the contest was quickened by resentment against
the party who had overthrown them. Contrary to the
expectations of both parties, the republicans were not only
successful, but their success was complete. They achiev-
ed an entire and complete overthrow of their opponents.
Tompkins was re-elected by about ten thousand majority
The republican candidates for the senate succeeded in all
the four districts, and in the assembly the republicans had
a majority of almost two to one. The only gain of the
federalists in the assembly was in the city of New-York,
where the election was very close, six federalists and five
republicans having been elected from that city.

The senators elected this year from the southern dis-
trict, were Ebenezer White; from the middle, James W.
Wilkin and Morgan Lewis; from the eastern, Henry
Yates, Jr.; from the western, Nathan Smith, Reuben
Humphrey, Henry ATownsend and Philetus Swift.

286 POLITICAL HISTORY.

It may perhaps, surprise the young reader to be inform-
ed that the name of Gov. Lewis as a candidate for the
legislature was on the same ticket that contained the name
of Gov. Tompkins, and that the same party which three
years before opposed the election of Mr. Lewis, and sup-
ported his more successful rival, now advocated the elec-
tion of both. But such nevertheless was the fact.

Whether Gov. Lewis from his own reflection, and from
the persuasion of his friends, of the Livingston family,
had been induced to take this course from a calculation
that this was the best means of regaining political power,
or whether, although he did " hate Tompkins less, he
hated Clinton more," and supposed this course would af-
ford him the greatest certainty of eventually prostrating
Mr. Clinton, or whether he had taken his resolution from
a sense of duty and motives of patriotism,or whether he
was operated upon partially by all these considerations,
I leave to the speculations of judicious readers. As a
general rule, indeed, as a uniform invariable rule, I think
when a man acts right, he ought to be presumed to act
from right motives, unless the contrary appears.

The causes of this overwhelming defeat of the federal-
ists may be,

First, the change by congress of the embargo for the
non-intercourse system. The embargo was always un-
popular. If it was a prudent, it nevertheless seemed to
the people a timid policy. By it we were compelled to
remain inactive while the inhabitants of all other parts of
th€ globe were in motion. This state of things was not
suited to the feelings and genius and enterprising spirit of
the American people. While the embargo continued the
government was felt by business men as a kind of incu-
bus, restraining their action and paralyizing their energies,
but when relieved from it, although a non-intercourse was
substituted, men felt relieved from a weight which had

OF TfE'.V-yORK. ■ 287

borne them down, and the air which they breathed seemed
freer.

Second, as might have been anticipated, the hostile
feeling against Great Britain increased. Impressions
made on us in our infancy were revived, by supposed or
real injuries received from a nation against whom we had
imbibed prejudices from the breasts of our mothers.
These feelings were rendered active, and embittered by
the refusal of the British to carry into effect the treaty
made by their accredited agent and envoy, Mr. Erskine.

To these causes may be added the influence of the pa-
tronage of the general government, wielded by that very
discreet and judicious statesman, James Madison. What-
ever changes might be produced in the state of New-York,
the most sanguine federalists did not indulge the hope of
electing a federal president for many years to come. Cal-
culating politicians therefore, could not fail of perceiving
that the republican side for the office-seeker was the safest
side. I of course, do not mention this last cause as one
operating on the great mass of either of the two great
parties, for I believe that an immense majority of both
were governed in their political action by a desire to sup-
port such men and measures as they believed would be
most likely to advance the prosperity, secure the indepen-
dence, and perpetuate the institutions of the country.
There is, however, in this as in all other countries, a por-
tion of the population who are governed by other and
more selfish considerations. Hence, in accounting for ma-
jorities, we are compelled to seek for the motives of action
which governed this class or portion of our population.

It is fortunate, however, that so long as the great mass
of both parties are honest in their intentions, there is no
reason to apprehend very serious detriment to the repub-
lic, should this unprincipled selfish portion of the commu-
nity throw themselves into either scale.

288

POLITICAL HISTOiiY

CHAPTER XV.

FROM MAY 1, ISIO, TO MAY 1, 1811.

The entire predominance secured to the republican
party, in all the branches of the state government, seemed
rather to increase than diminish the industry and activity
of the Martling men, in the personal war they were
waging, in the city of New-York, against Mr. Clinton.
From the spirit with which they conducted their attacks,
there can be little doubt but they were assured, by some
of the members of Mr. Madison's administration, of their
countenance and support. This combination against him,
Mr. Clinton appears, at this time, to have regarded with
indifference, if not with contempt. As a politician it was
one of his defects, more fully afterwards evinced in his
subsequent conduct, that he was too apt to under estimate
the power and means of annoyance of his opponents.

During this summer, in the month of August, Lieutenant
Governor Broome departed this life, leaving vacant the
office to which he had been elected at the last annual
election.

The legislature met on the 29th January, 1811. Nathan
Sanford, of New-York, was chosen speaker of the assem-
bly, by a vote of sixty-four to thirty-three, against the
federal candidate. Stephen North, of Delaware county,
was elected clerk, over Mr. James Van Ingen, the federal
candidate. The vote on this question stood sixty-four to
thirty-seven.

The governor's speech was chiefly occupied by remarks
on the foreign affairs of this country; but he again urged
the protection and encoui-agement of domestic manuafac-
tures, as the only means of rendering the state and nation

OF NEW- FORK, 289

truly independentj and he also again invited the attention
of the legislature to the common school fund. On the
next day after the organization of the two houses, the
assembly elected a council of appointment. Benjamin
Coe, of the southern; James W. Wilkin, of the middle;
John McLean, of the eastern; and Philetus Swift, of the
western districts, were chosen. This council, at the first
time of their meeting, which was on the first day of Feb-
ruary, undid almost every important thing which had been
done by the preceding council.

Mr. Hildreth was re-appointed attorney general; Mr.
Jenkins secretary of state; Mr, Clinton was made mayor
of New- York; and John Van Ness Yates, who had been
removed to make a place for Mr. Graham, was restored
to the office of recorder of Albany. The federalists who
■were last year appointed to office in the city of New-York,
were all removed, and the former incumbents restored to
the offices they had respectively occupied.

This council, in the course of their operations, produced
an entire change of officers throughout the state, from the
highest to the lowest, at any rate in all those cases where
their immediate predecessors had made appointments.
But in truth, the public mind had become so accustomed
to see men ejected from office on account of their opinions,
that such changes ceased to be matter of surprise, or to
produce any excitement. I cannot now refrain from
noticing one little act of the council which, even in these
times, seems to me quite contemptible. They removed
Gerrit Y. Lansing, a young gentleman of great respecta-
bility, and who, since, for a number of years, represented
the county of Albany in the congress of the United States,
from the petty office of master in chancery, probably for
no other ostensible reason than that he had been chosen
clerk of the assembly during the administration of Gov.

Lewis.

19

290 POLITICAL HISTORY

On the 14th Februarjj the health of Mr. Sanford was
so much impaired that he was compelled to resign his
office of speaker, and Willam Ross, of Orange county, was
chosen to fill his place.

The charter of the United States Bank expired this
year, and an attempt was made to re-charter it, A bill
for that purpose, passed the house of representatives, after
a long and interesting debate; but it was rejected in the
senate by the casting vote of the vice-president, George
Clinton. He assigned briefly the reason of his vote, which
was, that inasmuch as the power to create corporations
was not expressly granted to congress, it was reserved,
and the chartering of a bank was therefore unconstitutional.
*' In the course of a long life, said the venerable man, " I
have found that governvient is not to he strengtheftied by
an assumption of doubtful powers; but by a wise and en-
ergetic execution of those powers which are incontestible."

Whether his vote was right or wrong, is a question I do
not propose to discuss, but I cannot refrain from declaring
that the sentiment, with which he concluded his remarks,
is perfectly just, and ought to be deeply impressed on the
mind of every statesman.*

The bill incorporating the Mechanics and Farmers
Bank of the city of Albany, was passed, ostensibly for the
benefit and accommodation of the mechanics and middling
interest of that city. Accordingly, the president of the
institution, and a majority of the directors, were, by the
original charter, required to be practical mechanics.! Mr.

* The above was written in 1840. Since that time, this part of Vice-Presiden.;
Clinton's remarks have been often quoted in the newspapers, and, I am informed,
that Mr. Allen, who edits the " Madisonian," a Washington paper, has asserted
that a gentleman, then a member of the United States senate, was the author of
the sentence. It may be so ; but if so, the fact ought to be proved before it receives
general credence. It would require strong evidence to convince me that George
Clinton borrowed the words or ideas of any man. If the allegation-be not true,
this attempt to rob the mighty dead deserves the indignation and contempt of every
honorable man.

t By an act passed March 21, 183C, the charter was altered, and the stockliold-

OF NEW-YORK.

291

Southwick was the first president. This gentleman was
now in the zenith of his power and prosperity. He con-
trolled the Albany Register, which at that time, possessed
a most commanding influence over the democratic New-
York public. He was prepossessing in his appearance
and generous in his nature, and was all but worshipped
by the republican members of the legislature. He was
printer to the state, and the state patronage that year, by
means of the insolvent notices growing out of a law
passed during the session of 1811, was throwing into his
coffers gold in unmeasured quantities,and now the influence
and power of a popular bank was placed in his hands.
We shall see how soon all these advantages, and all his
flattering prospects and high hopes vanished, and " left
not a wreck behind."

The legislature also passed an act, in the early part of
the session, for the election of a lieutenant governor, in
lieu of the deceased Lieut. Gov. Broome. Shortly after
the passage of this act, and on the 14th March, at a legis-
lative republican caucus, at which Wm. W. Gilbert was
chairman, and Jasper Hopper secretary, De Witt Clinton
was nominated to be supported for the successor of Mr.
Broome, as the report of the proceedings of the meeting,
contained in the Register, states, hy a large majority. An
address was issued on the occasion, signed by seventy-
three republican members.

What were the motives which induced Mr. Clinton to
desire or accept this nomination 1 He was mayor of the
great city of New-York, from which, he no doubt, at that
time, derived emoluments equal to fouteen thousand dol-
lars. To accept the office of lieutenant governor ^ under
Daniel D. Tompkins as governor j was, in name at least,

ers were authorized lo elect any of their members directors, and the directors
can lawfully elect such person for president as they may think proper, irrespect-
ive of his profession or occupation.

292 POLITICAL HISTORY

and in the eye of distant spectators, admitting himself to
be of far less political consequence than Mr. Tompkins —
an admission, it is to be presumed, he was by no means
ready to make. Besides, the station of lieutenant gover-
nor did not, ex-officio^ confer on him any political power.
But it is probable that Mr. Clinton believed that his
presence at Albany, during the session of the legislature,
and a personal intercourse with the members, w-as abso-
lutely necessary in order to enable him to retain his as-
cendancy with the governing party. This object might
have been better accomplished by his continuance in the
senate as a member of that body. In this capacity he
could, with propriety, lead oflf on all the great and most
popular measures of the party, and, at his option, take
part in the discussions, and by the publication of his
speeches, always have an opportunity of presenting his
views to the public, without the mortification of continu-
ally presenting himself, officially at least, as an inferior to
Mr. Tompkins. He, therefore, must have preferred a seat
in the senate to the office of lieutenant governor.

If, then, we conclude that Mr. Clinton believed, and
perhaps correctly believed, that his personal attendance
at Albany was absolutely necessary, to enable him to
defeat the machinations of his enemies, and retain his
influence in the state, and that, for that purpose, a seat in
the senate was more desirable than the office of lieutenant
governor, the inference is most manifest that he would
have sought a re-election as senator, had he not have be-
come convinced that he could not be nominated and sup-
ported by the republicans of the southern district. That
such was, in truth, the state of feeling among the majority
of the republicans of that district, is evident from the de-
velopments which were made immediately after Mr.
Clinton's nomination at Albany.

No sooner did the news of Mr. Clinton's nomination

OF NEW-YORK. 293

reach New- York, than the Martling men put themselves
in motion with great spirit and energy. A meeting was
forthwith got up, in Martling's long room, at a public
house fronting the Park, called Tammany Hall, which
was claimed as the democratic head quarters for the city
of New-York. Mr. Teunis Wortman, who was the pro-
tegee of Mr. Clinton during the struggle with Col. Burr,
was one of the most busy spirits in gathering and exciting
the opposition on this occasion. At this meeting, Mangle
Minthorne, the father-in-law of Governor Tompkins, pre-
sided, and John Bingham was secretary. They adopted
a preamble which set forth that they believed Mr. Clinton
was cherishing interests distinct and separate from the
general interest of the republican party, and " determined
to establish in his person a pernicious family aristocracy;
that devotion to his person had been, in a great measure,
made the exclusive test of merit, and the only "passfort to
promotion-^^ that the meeting had strong reasons to be-
lieve he opposed the election of Mr. Madison to the pre-
sidency of the United States; and that they could no
longer consider him a member of the republican party.
The meeting then proceeded to nominate Col. Marinus
Willet as the republican candidate for lieutenant governor,
and appointed Dr. Saml. L. Mitchell, Teunis Wortman,
Matthew L. Davis, John Ferguson, and others, a commit-
tee to promote the election of their candidate. Col. Wil-
let had been an officer of great merit during the revolu-
tionary war, and in private life he was regarded as an
amiable and meritorious citizen. In his politics, however,
he had been wavering. He was inclined to support the
Burr faction, and was, it will be recollected, a partizan of
Lewis, and was appointed mayor of New-York, on the
removal of De Witt Clinton, by the same council who had
given so much offence to the republican party. It is not
a little singular that this meeting, whose object was to

294 POLITICAL HISTORY

defeat a regular state caucus nomination, in their preamble,
avow their approbation of the practice of, and their deter-
mination to support, caucus nominations.

Mr. Nathan Sanford was an open and avowed adherent
to the Martling men, and was subsequently nominated,
through their influence, to be supported as the successor
of Mr. Clinton, as senator from the southern district. Mr.
Sanford, at that time, held, under Mr. Madison, the office
of United States district attorney of New.York — an office
which produced him annually, on an average, more than
thirty thousand dollars. Mr. Sanford was a prudent man.
Would he have publicly identified himself wath the Mart-
ling men had he not been well assured that the proceed-
ings of those men were approved by Mr. Madison 1

A counter meeting was, about this time, held by the
republican Clintonians in New-York, at the Union Hotel,
at which Arthur Smith was chairman, and Hector Craig
secretary, the object of which was to pass resolutions
approving of the nomination of Mr. Clinton; but the
Martling men rushed in upon them, and the meeting was
broken up in confusion.

The federalists nominated and supported Nicholas Fish
as their candidate for lieutenant governor.

Notwithstanding the vigorous efforts made by the Mart-
ling men, among whom were many gentlemen of great
weight of character and influence, to detach from Mr.
Clinton the support of his republican friends, such was the
respect for his talents, and confidence in his integrity,
entertained by the republicans of the country, that little
impression was made upon them.

During this year the mode by which the republican
party selected their candidates for the senate was changed.
Heretofore the republican members of the assembly, from
each senatorial district, met in caucus, and by a majority
of votes designated the candidate. This mode of nomina-

OF NEW-YORK. 295

tion was found to be very justly objectionable. The
voice of those republicans who happened to reside in
counties represented by federalists was not heard, at any
rate they had no means of causing their influence to be
felt in the selection ofpersonsfor whom they were to vote
for the important office of a senator; and the long resi-
dence of the members of assembly, from a given district,
at Albany, and continued &nd frequent association together,
seemed calculated to lead to cabal and intrigue in the
selection of such persons, as candidates for the senate,
more suited to the gratification of the individual views and
interests of the members, than acceptable to the great
body of the democratic party. Instead, therefore, of this
mode of nomination, delegates were hereafter chosen by a
county meeting of delegates, who were themselves chosen
by that portion of the people in the respective towns, who
were republicans, at their primary meetings.

The election, in April, does not seem to have been very
warmly contested in any other part of the state but the
city of New-York. In that city and county, Mr. Clinton
received but five hundred and ninety, and Col. Willet six
hundred and seventy-eight, while the federal candidate,
Mr. Fish, received two thousand and forty-four votes:
being nearly two to one of the aggregate vote cast for
Clinton and Willet. The result of this election showed
very clearly the little strength that remained to Mr. Clin-
ton among the New-York republicans, and it also proves
that so anxious were the Martling men to defeat Mr. C.
that a majority of them actually voted for the federal
candidate, Mr. Fish. By this vote they exhibited this
most palpable absurdity —

They opposed the election of Mr. Clinton because they
alleged he was secretly aiding the federal interest, and to
carry out this opposition they voted for a federalist ! The
federalists carried their assembly ticket in New-York by

296

POLITICAL HISTORY

a majority of more than fourteen hmitlred. Their success
was unquestionably owing to the collisions amono- the
republicans. Indeed, it is not improbable that many of
the Clintonians voted the federal assembly ticket, as ihe
persons put in nomination by the democratic party for the
assembly, were all, or nearly all of them, the most bitter
and uncompromising enemies of Mr. Clinton.

Among the federal gentlemen elected, were Samuel
Jones, jun., afterwards chancellor, now chief justice of
the superior court of the city, and Peter W. Radcliff.

The general result of the state election was favorable to
the democratic party. Of the members of the assembly
elected, seventy-three were republicans, and thirty-nine
were federalists.

The following persons, all republicans, were elected to
the senate. Nathan Sanford, from the southern; William
Taber and Erastus Root, from the middle; John Tayler,
Pvugglcs Plubbard, Ketchel Bishop and Elisha Arnold,
from the eastern; and Casper M. Rouse, from the western
districts.

OF NEW-YORK. 297

CHAPTER XVI.

FROM MAY 1, 1811, TO MAY 1, 1812

The political year on which we now enter, was one in
which two important projects were formed, and in the at-
tempt to execute which, great alterations were produced
in the condition of political parties, and in the personal
standing and influence of several distinguished individuals
in the state of New-York. The one was the support of
De Witt Clinton in opposition to Mr. Madison for the
presidency, and the other the chartering of the Bank of
America, with a capital of six millions of dollars.

The difficulties between America and Great Britain in-
stead of having been compromised had gone on for years
increasing. In addition to the war made by that power
upon our neutral commerce, it claimed the right of search-
ing our merchant vesselsj and if sailors or other persons
were found there, who were British subjects, of impress-
ing them and compelling them to serve in the British
navy.

This practice constituted a subaltern officer of the Bri-
tish Navy, the sole judge of who was and who was not
an American citizen. It was not only vexatious but de-
rogatory to our national flag and national honor.

To these outrages upon our commercial and personal
rights, Mr. Jeff'erson and Mr. Madison had opposed em-
bargo and non-intercourse laws, and many very learned
and able arguments, going to show that according to
Vattel and other approved writers on the law of nations,
we were right and the British were wrong.

The course Mr. Madison pursued was deemed too dila-
tory and inefficient by many of the most ardent democrats.

298 POLITICAL HISTORY

They thought the character and honor of the nation
demanded a more decided and energetic action on the
part of the national government. Some of Mr. Madi-
son's warmest frionds from the south and west became
extremely impatient and restive; and even Mr. Clay
was said to have threatened to abandon him unless he
would resort to more vigorous and warlike measures.
Mr. Clinton's friends in this state had great confidence
in his talents, and especially in his energy of character.
It was, probably, more for this than any other reason, that
some of them expressed a wish to see him elevated to the
executive chair of the Union. Mr. Clinton no doubt, more
readily listened to these suggestions in consequence of the
personal hostility that Mr. Madison had, as he believed,
shown towards him. Whatever the motive may have been,
I have no manner of doubt, that Mr. Clinton, as early as
the summer of 1811, had determined upon taking the
field for the presidential office at the next term.

On this occasion, as on many others, Mr. Clinton af-
forded evidence of a lamentable defect in his character as
a politician. That defect was this: a neglect to cast about
for means for the accomplishment of his end. His objects
were always magnificent, his ends were always such as
evinced an elevated and lofty mind, but he did not seem
to be aware of the necessity of providing ways and means
to accomplish those ends.

How was he to be made president? Was it by the re-
publican party? If so, according to the existing common
law of the party, he must have a nomination by a con-
gressional caucus. Could he obtain that nomination 1
He does not appear to have made any serious effort to do
so. Indeed the attempt itself would have been fool-har-
diness. Mr. Madison, a man of talents, of pure morals,
himself being on the spot, wielding the patronage of the
nation, could any reasonable man think of detaching a

OF rsE\v-vouK. 299

majority of his political friends, so decidedly from him
as to declare open war upon him by refusing to give him
a second nomination 1

Could Clinton hope to succeed against the admitted
views of the whole south, and against a regular republican
caucus nomination, without bringing to his aid the support
of the whole federal party? If he could obtain that sup-
port, had he not the best possible reason to apprehend
that nearly all his republican friends would abandon himl
It might happen, as in truth it did happen, that a consi-
derable portion of his political friends in this state, from
personal respect for him, and confidence in him, would ad-
here to him; but did it not occur to him, that he himself
had denounced the leaders of the federalists as men of
such vaulting ambition that they had rather " reign in hell,
than serve in heaven," and that this denunciation had been
rung in the ears of every freeman in the United States'?
When the great mass of the republicans in the nation saw
him acting in concert with a party he had thus denounced,
had he not reason to believe they would withdraw from
him their support, and treat him as an enemy 1 It is
hardly possible but that these considerations must have
forced themselves into his mind. It is, however, too easy
for a man to persuade himself that what he ardently wishes
should be, will be.

It is not improbable to me that the ardor of his ambi-
tion hurried him into a determination to engage in this
contest without any regular or fixed scheme of action.

The other project to which I allude, was the plan of
establishing a great bank in the city of New-York.

The refusal to re-charter the Bank of the United States;
had thrown back into the hands of the stockholders, a
large amount of uninvested cash capital; and by this time
it began to be perceived that the city of New- York and
not Philadelphia, was destined to be the great commercial

300 POLITICAL HISTORY

emporium of North America. This opinion led enter-
prising and speculating men, as well as many capitalists,
to project the establishment of a great moneyed institution
in New-Yorkj with a capital of six millions of dollars.
An association for the purpose of procuring a charter for
such a bank was soon formed, and they early commenced
their operations. They knew that the republican mem-
bers of the legislature would foresee that the majority of the
stock, and the consequent control of this gigantic institu-
tion, would fall into the hands of their political oppo-
nents; and they must have anticipated the jealousy and
fearful apprehensions which would be entertained by all
the other banks of the state, of the power of a company
which was to wield so immense and formidable a capital.
The projectors believed, and correctly believed, that
leading federal politicians would support their application,
for the same reason that they anticipated opposition from
the republican party. They knew that intelligent men of
both parties were fully aware of the truth of the position
that money is power. They therefore assumed, and the
eventjustified the assumption, that they should have the
support of the federal members of the legislature. It
was for this reason that their principal attention was
directed to the republican members elect. To secure
them, or a portion of them, in favor of their project, they
early enlisted as their agent David Thomas, a gentleman
who had been long a member of congress, a zealous re-
publican from the year 1798, whom we have seen at that
time an efficient member of the assembly, and who lately
had been turned out of the office of state treasurer, by
the united action of the federalists and Lewisites, in
consequence, it was said, of his adherence to the republi-
can party. Could such a man be suspected of a want of
fidelity to the cause of republicanism? Besides, Gen.
ThomasL was a silent, cautious man, artful, sagacious, and

/

OF NEW-YORK. 301

possessed of a deep knowledge of men. Gen. Thomas,
during the summer of 1811, found it convenient to make
an extensive tour through the south-western part of the
state, and as he was universally known to be a leading re-
publican, he was naturally brought in contact with the re-
publican members elected to the ne^t legislature, in nearly
every county through which he passed. Some of his com-
munications with them will be seen in the disclosures of
Casper M. Rouse, which will be detailed in another place.
The other prominent agent residing in the interior of the
state, whom the company selected and employed, was Solo-
mon SouTHWicK. He, as has been before remarked, control-
led the paper at the seat of government, which, if not the
dictator, was the accredited organ of the democratic party
in the state. Though not the silent, cautious, plotting man
that Gen. Thomas was, he was, as I have before remarked,
exceedingly fascinating in his address, ardent in his pur-
suits, and almost irresistible in his persuasive powers.
He too, was known to be the devoted and confidential
friend of De Witt Clinton. These, with other subordi-
nate agents, were the men on whom the company relied
to bring to their aid a sufficient portion of the republican
party to render their application successful.

I have omitted to mention that on the 8th day of April,
1811, the legislature passed an act appointing Gov. Mor-
ris, Stephen Van Rensselaer, De Witt Clinton, William
North, Simeon De Witt, Thomas Eddy, Peter B. Porter,
Robert R. Livingston, and Robert Fulton, commissioners
for taking into consideration all matters relating to inland
navigation. These commissioners were authorized to
make application to congress, or any state or territory, and
request them to co-operate with New-York in the project
of improving the navigation between the tide waters of
Hudson's river and the great western lakes, to accept of
donations from individuals or companies for the promotion

302 POLITICAL HISTOKY

of the object in view, and to ascertain whether loans
could be effected on advantageous terms upon the credit
of the state. This was the commencement of the canal
policy in New-York. It is evident, from running one's
eye over the names of the commissioners, that it was not
a party measure. The bill was passed by the combined
efforts of Mr. Clinton and Gen. Piatt in the senate, and
by the support of enlightened and liberal men of both
parties in the assembly.

In pursuance of the authority contained in the law,
Mr. Clinton and Mr. Morris, in December, 1811, visit-
ed Washington, and endeavored to obtain from the
United States a grant of land in aid of the prosecution of
the scheme. In this application they were wholly unsuc-
cessful. Congress declined to act at all in the matter.

The opponents of Mr. Clinton charged this journey as
having been undertaken by him for electioneering pur-
poses, and the Martling men scouted the idea of a canal
from Albany as so visionary and absurd that no rational
man for one moment, could seriously entertain it. A pro-
position at this day, to construct a rail road from the
earth to the moon, could not be treated with more derision
than the Martling men treated the canal project. They
charged Mr. Clinton with pretending to favor the scheme
for no other purpose than to make of it a hobby (a
ridiculous one, they said,) on which to ride into power.

The legislature assembled on the 28th of January, and
Alexander Sheldon, the old republican speaker, was
again chosen to that office, and Samuel North, clerk.

A principal part of the governors speech was occupied
in depicting the danger arising from a redundant paper
currency. He protested against any considerable increase
of the number, or the capital of the banks, evidently
with a view to prepare the minds of the members to re-
sist the application for a charter to the Bank of Ame-

OF NEW-YORK. 303

rica. " It is questionable," said the governor, " wheth-
er they" (banks,) " have not already been multiplied
to an alarming extent." It is worthy of remark that the
governor in his speech, wholly abstains from any refer-
ence to the scheme of internal improvements, or to the
proceeedings of the commissioners in relation to that im-
portant subject. The address of the governor occupies
three printed columns in a newspaper, and he deems it
necessary to apologize for its " unusual length.''''

If I may venture to express an opinion, I will say, that
in my judgment the speeches of Gov. Tompkins are gene-
rally extremely well written, and give evidence of highly
respectable talents. as a writer. Indeed, I think that both
his friends and enemies have not done him justice in giv-
ing him credit for as much and as high a grade of talents
as he actually possessed. But I am wandering from
my subject. I referred to the apology of the governor for
the great length of his speech, for the purpose of re-
marking that I humbly conceive that a capital error has
crept into the executive communications of this and seve-
ral other states. The duty of the governor is clearly and
briefly stated in the fourth section of the third article of the
present constitution. " He shall communicate, by message
to the legislature, the condition of the state, and recom-
mend such matters to them as he shall judge expedient."
It appears to me, he should simply state facts necessary to
be made known to the representatives of the people, with-
out comment, and recommend measures merely by laying
down propositions without an attempt to prove by argu-
ment the correctness of such propositions. His friends
in the legislature ought to be able to comment on his facts
and to set forth and establish by argument, the fitness of
the measures which he recommends; instead of this, our
governors have acquired the habit of, I was going to say,
declaiming at great length, on the facts they state, and of

304 POLITICAL HISTORY

going into a train of reasoning to support every position
they take in relation to the measures they recommend.
In this way our governors will shortly become authors,
and write books instead of messages. Is there not some-
thing disrespectful to the legislature when a governor elects
to occupy their time in animadversions upon, or inferences
from the facts he communicates, or in arguments, the ob-
jects of which are to prove the fitness of the measures he
recommends] Would not a stranger be led to conclude that
he thought the persons whom he addressed incapable of
judging of the truth and merits of his propositions, unless
he should enlighten them by a course of reasoning? It
is still worse, it is an insult, to occupy their time in lec-
turing them like school boys in relation to the principles
of our government and on the subject of the natural
rights of men. Mr. De Witt Clinton was the first govern-
or who sinned in this respectj and his apology was, that
during nearly all the time he was governor, a majority of
the legislature was against him, and he had no other means
of presenting to the people his principles of action, and
the reasons upon which his opinions were founded. This,
although it might afford for him some excuse, after all,
was rather a sorry apology to his legislative friends who
were in the minority.

On the second day of February, the assembly chose for
a council of appointment, William W. Gilbert, of the
southern; Johannus Bruyn, of the middle; Henry Yates,
jun., of the eastern; and Francis A. Bloodgood, of the
western districts.

This council was decidedly Clintonian; but the party
decrees having been carried into eflfect by the preceding
council, little remained to be done by this. Such appoint-
ments, however, as were made, were made in accordance
with the wishes and views of Mr. Clinton.

Although the republican party held a pretty strong

OF NEW-YORK. 305

majority in the assembly, there were few men among
them who possessed much talent as speakers.

John W. Taylor, then a young man, and who, for the
first time, made his appearance in public life, as a member
of assembly, since known as a distinguished member of
congress, and speaker of the house of representatives of
the United States, was the only republican member of
much talent as a debater, or tact in legislation; but as this
was his first session, inexperience prevented him from
possessing the latter qualification to any degree of perfec-
tion: although, he afterwards proved himself, and is now
acknowledged to be, a man exceedingly sagacious, and
profoundly versed in the ways of men.

Mr. William Ross, a democratic member from the
county of Orange, spoke often, but with little effect. Mr.
Ross, though an honest and kind hearted man, was a vain
man. He was, beyond question, sincerely and warmly
attached to the republican party, but his vanity and want
of real talent, rendered him rather a cause of amusement
than a terror to his opponents. Mr. Van Vechten, from
Albany, and Mr. Jones, of New-York, stood at the head
of the federal phalanx in the assembly.

On the 5th of February, a bill passed the assembly for
the appointment of David Thomas as treasurer, in lieu of
Mr. Lansing, by a majority of eight votes: there being
only fifty votes for the bill, and forty-two against it.
This vote shows that it was not a party vote; for there
were, as has been* stated, seventy-three republican, and
thirty-nine federal members elected. The last legislature
was, in both branches, republican, and yet Mr. Lansing
was re-appointed treasurer. How came Thomas now to
be appointed 1 Was not his appointment pressed by
Southwick and other bank agents and members, in order
to give more weight to the exertions it was intended he
should make in favor of chartering the Bank of America 1

20

306 POLITICAL HISTORY

This, too, may have been foreseen by some of the more
wary opponents of that measure, and to this, perhaps,
was owing the fact that insteatl of receiving seventy-three
votes in the assembly, he actually received but fifty. The
bill passed the senate by a vote of nineteen to five, and
became a law on the 8th of February.*

Early in the session the applicants for the six million
bank introduced their petition into the assembly. They
offered the extravagant bonus of six hundred thousand
dollars; to be paid in the following manner, and for the
following purposes: —

Four hundred thousand dollars to the common- school
fund; one hundred thousand dollars to the literature fund;
& 1 hundred thousand dollars to be paid into the treasury
at the end of twenty years, provided no other bank should,
in that time, be chartered by the state.

The sum of one million of dollars was also to be loaned
to the state, at five per cent interest, to be laid out in
constructing canals; and one million of dollars was to be
loaned to farmers, I suppose, at six per cent.

Mr. Southwick, and the other managers, had early em-
ployed a great number of sub-agents, some of whom were
officers of the house of assembly, but most of them were
low and worthless fellows, who were to carry messages,
and listen to what was said by the members, at their rooms
and other places, and report at head quarters. Among

* About this time, there being two vacancies in the board of regents of the Uni-
niversity, the legislature proceeded to supply such vacancies. Joseph C Yates,
and Solomon Southwick, were the caucus republican candidates. Judges Spencer
and Taylerhad exerted all their influence to prevent the nomination of Southwick,
but without success; a circumstance, which, considering the great influence of
those gentlemen, very clearly demonstrates the almost irresistible influence, at
that time, of Solomon Southwick.

Judge Yates and Mr. Southwick were elected, against Smith Thompson and
Stephen Van ReTisselaer. Such is the madness of party, and the unreasonableness
of individual ambition.

It is deeply to be lamented that party interest, and individual political ambition,
should intrude into the calm retreats of science, and the quiet walks of literature.

OF KEW-YORK. 307

other agents thus employed, was an Irishman by the name
of John Martin, who, from being an itinerant preacher of
the gospel, had, for a year or two before, devoted himself
to the labor of making political converts. So numerous
were these sub-agents, (who, by the bye, were generally
supplied with handbills containing the printed proposals
of the banking company,) that not only the doors of the
two houses, but the rooms of members, were besieged by
them.

Judge Spencer, .Judge Tayler, Governor Tompkins and
other leading and efficient republicans, declared open war
against the bank, its agents and supporters. Unfortu-
nately, Spencer and Tayler, who took the lead in these
denunciations, were known to be interested in the existing
banks, Judge Tayler being president of the State Bank,
and Judge Spencer being supposed to be largely interested
in the same bank, as well as in the Manhattan Bank of
the city of New-York. The bank applicants, therefore,
charged them, with some degree of plausibility, with
being influenced more by selfish views and private interest,
than by a regard for the public weal.

Thomas and Southwick, and many other of the bank
applicants, were loud in their praises of De Witt Clinton,
and declared themselves the advocates of his election to
the presidency. Although Mr. Clinton announced that
he was against the bank, he was very careful to protest
against making a support or opposition to it a test of po-
litical merit, or political correctness. In assuming this
position, it will be seen that it was adverse to the ground
he had taken with respect to those who favored the incor-
poration of the Merchants Bank. But consistency is not
a distinguishing characteristic of politicians. Mr. Clinton
frankly told Judge Spencer that, although he should give
his vote, if required to vote, against the chartering of the
American Banking Company, he should, on no account.

308 POLITICAL HISTORY

be drawn into a quarrel with the supporters of that mea-
sure. Thi« determination led to coldness between these
two gentlemen, who were brothers-in-law, and who had,
for the long period of fourteen years, (since 1798,) been,
politically, cordially united, and personally, ardent friends.
A short time afterwards, as we shall see, this coldness
produced bitter personal hostility.

Mr. Southwick, in order to justify Mr. Clinton in the
ground he had taken, not to allow the support ot the
bank to be made a political question, and to quiet the
tender consciences of his republican friends, who were
inclined to support the bank, on the 28th February came
out with an article in the Register, in which he argued,
that the question of granting a charter to a banking com-
pany could not be of a political nature, and concluded by
saying that, " He who supports or opposes a bank upon
the grounds of federalism or republicanism, is either a
deceiver or deceived, and will not be listened to by any
man of sense or experience." How different was his
language in relation to the Merchants Bank !

The enacting clause of the bill for chartering the Bank
of America, passed the assembly by a vote of fifty-two to
forty-six. After the question was taken on the first
clause, some alarming disclosures w^ere made, of attempts
by the applicants to bribe members of both houses; but I
propose giving a more detailed account of those proceed-
ings, in the senate as well as in the assembly, in another
place. At present, I will merely state the fact, that it
■was rendered most evident that attempts had been made
by the agents of the company, to corrupt the members of
the legislature; and yet, that after these facts had been
proved, the bank party, in the assembly, increased, as it
also did in the case of the Merchants Bank; for, on the
final passage of the bill, in the assembly, the vote was
fifty-eight to thirty-nine.

OF NEW-YORK. 309

The bill was sent to the senate, and when that house
was in committee of the whole on it a motion was
made to reject it, but the motion failed of success,
the vote being fifteen to thirteen. Mr. E. P. Livingston
was in the chair, who was known to be in favor of the
bill. This trial of strength i-endered it certain that the
bill would pass the senate, and become a law; whereupon,
on the 27th March, the governor sent a message to the
two houses proroguing the legislature until the 21st of
May.

The cause of the prorogation assigned by the governor,
was, that sufficient proof had been furnished to show that
the bank applicants had used, or attempted to use, corru-pt
means to procure a charter.

When the message was read in the assembly a scene of
confusion and uproar ensued, and, for a few moments,
outrage and violence. Under the constitution of 1777,
^ the governor possessed the power of prorogation, but it
had been considered as a remnant of royal prerogative,
unsuitable to the genius of our government; and I am not
aware that, in time of peace, it had ever before been ex-
ercised. But if, as was believed, and is still believed by
many intelligent, unprejudiced men, a bill was about to
be forced through the legislature by palpably corrupt
means, it seems to me any constitutional measure to arrest
its progress was justifiable.

The bank advocates in the legislature, had systemati-
cally prevented any action on nearly all the important
business before them. Holding a majority, they seemed
determined that nothing of consequence should be done
until their favorite measure should be adopted. The more
pressing the necessity of legislation, on any given sub-
ject, the more carefully did they watch, and strenuously
oppose, final action on it. Of two hundred and forty-two
bills, ultimately passed during that session, the greater

310 POLITICAL HISTORY

part of which were then on their table, they had passed
but thirty-nine when they w-ere prorogued.

The friends of the bank resorted to another contrivance.
Nearly all of them professed to be in favor of a nomina-
tion of Mr. Clinton for president, by a legislative republi-
can caucus; but they, on one pretence and another, refused
to go into caucus on that subject until after the question
of chartering the bank should be disposed of. This was
excessively annoying to Mr. Clinton; for the members
of congress had also, for another cause, put off, to an unu-
sually late period, their caucus, which was to be held for the
same purpose, A large portion of them, with Mr. Clay
at their head, had refused to support Mr. Madison, or go
into a caucus, until he should send a message to congress
recommending a declaration of war against Great Britain.
This, he, for a long time, hesitated to do, and indeed did
not do, until June following. Mr. Clinton was, for reasons
w^hich must be obvious, extremely anxious that his nomi-
nation, if made at all by the legislature of New- York,
should be made before a congressional nomination of Mr.
Madison should be announced. But the bank men,
although professing to be exceedingly anxious for Mr.
C.'s success, peremptorily refused to move in the matter
until they had procured a charter for their bank. Ought
not Mr. Clinton instantly to have cast off such friends 1

The bank men, and many other df Mr. Clinton's friends,
say, that Gov. Tompkins had, at that time, fixed his eye
on the presidency; that he apprehended the success of
Mr. C. would be fatal to his hopes in that respect; and
that, to prevent the nomination of Clinton by a New-York
legislative caucus, before a congressional caucus for the
nomination of Mr. Madison could be held, was the true
reason and controlling cause of his venturing on so bold a
measure as the prorogation. This, however, is matter of
conjecture.

OF NEW- YORK. 311

Before the members left Albany, thirty-nine republicans
■signed and published an address to their constituents, ap-
proving of the prorogation, and twenty-eight democratic
members issued a solemn protest against that measure.

The Albany Register also, came out in open and bitter
denunciations against Gov. Tompkins, Judge Spencer,
Judge Tay.'er, Secretary Jenkins, and all who supported
them.

In this broken and disturbed state and condition of the
republican party the April elections came on. The result
was, a small majority of federalists were returned to the
assembly, but not so great but that there would, m the
next legislature, be a republican majority upon a joint
ballot of the two houses.

The federalists carried the southern and eastern districts.
In the southern district two republican tickets were sup-
ported, each claiming to be the real Simon Pures. The
Clintonian republicans supported William Freeman and
John Garretson; and the Martling men held up John
Bingham and Robert Moore. To show the relative
strength, at that time, in the southern district, of the two
sections of the democratic party, I give the result of the
canvass —

William Freeman received three thousand and twenty-
seven votes; John Garretson two thousand nine hundred
and fifty-seven; John Bingham one thousand seven hun-
dred and six; and Robert Moore one thousand six hundred
and twenty.

The senators elected from the southern district, were
Peter W. Radcliff and Elbert H. Jones; middle, Martin
Van Buren ; eastern, Gerrit Wendell; western, Francis
A. Bloodgood, Archibald S. Clarke, Russel Atwater and
Henry Hrger.

Mr. Hager v/as from the county of Schoharie; but,
-according to usage, the candidate ought to have been taken

312 POLITICAL HISTORY

from the county of Otsego; and a republican convention
of the latter county had recommended, to the district con-
vention, Elijah H. Metcalf, Esq., a worthy and popular
citizen, who was then a member of the assembly. But
Mr. Metcalf had voted for the bank, and the district con-
vention, for that reason, refused to nominate him.*

On the 20th of April, the venerable vice-president,
George Clinton, died at Washington, aged seventy-three
years, and thus terminated a long and laborious life, the
greater part of which had been devoted to the service of
his country. He commenced his public life as a member
of the colonial assembly, and, during the stormy period
which preceded the American Revolution, he sustained
with unshaken firmness, the rights of the people. During
the whole of the revolutionary war he stood at the head
of the government of the state, and was commander-in-
chief of the militia. After the close of that war we have
briefly sketched his history until he became the second
officer in the government of the United States. Every
act of his, and every thing which remains of him, affords
evidence that he was a man of strong and vigorous intel-
lect, of great decision of character, and that he was a good
judge of men, and possessed a profound knowledge of the
human heart.

Either before, or during the recess of the legislature, a
singular project was formed, to defeat the passage of the
bill to incorporate the stockholders of the Bank of Ame-
rica. On the question of approving the bill, in the
council of revision, it was supposed that body would vote
in the following manner: —

* About the time of the prorogation of the legislature, a newspaper was estab-
lished by Judge Spencer, and his immediate friends, in the city of Albany, for the
express purpose of counteracting the impressions intended to be made by Mr.
Southwick,by means of the Albany Register. This paper was called the Albany
Republican, and was printed by one Brown. From that circumstance it acquired
the name of "The Brown Republican.^' It expired soon after the election.

OF NEW-YORK. 313

For the bill — Lansing, Kent, Thompson and Van Ness.
Against the bill-r-The governor, Spencer and Yates.

If, therefore, two members could be added to the coun-
cil, who were against the bill, it w^ould not become a law,
unless passed by two-thirds of both houses: of which,
there could be no reasonable apprehension, or expectation.

Shortly after the prorogation, a petition was drawn and
circulated, addressed to the council of appointment, pray-
ing for the appointment of two additional judges of the
supreme court. This petition, after setting forth some
reasons for the measure, states as follows: — "We," say
the petitioners, " owe it to candor to say that a powerful
motive which urges us to request the immediate appoint-
ment of two judges, is, that they w^ould arrest and prevent
the passage of a bill before the legislature, entitled " An
Act to incorporate the Bank of America," without waiting
for the sanction of the legislature, who can scarcely be
supposed to approve a measure to defeat a bill passed by
themselves." It will be recollected, that under the old
constitution, the council of appointment could create as
many judges of the supreme court as they thought proper;
but the additional judges, thus appointed, could receive no
pay without an act of the legislature. The petition from
which I have quoted, was accompanied by a printed circu-
lar, signed by Stephen Phelps — (Bates 1) Eli Hill and
John C. Spencer, in which they stated that the petition
" was not intended for general circulation^ hut was to he
presented tohifluential repuhlicans only.'^

Whether this petition was ever presented to the council
I am not advised. I cannot imagine a state of things
which would afford a justification, or even a reasonable
excuse, for such a flagrant abuse of power. That the
project was seriously contemplated, I have not a shadow
of doubt; for William Ross, of Newburgh, told me he w-as
to have been appointed one of the judges, had the scheme

314 POLITICAL HISTORY

been carried into effect. The extracts from the petition
and circular, were made by me, from a copy of those docu-
ments published in the Albany Register in 1812.

The legislature again met on the 21st of May, and the
senate immediately resumed the consideration of the bill
to incorporate the stockholders of the Bank of America.
The opposition to its passage, was ably conducted, and
long continued. Among the most zealous and talented
opponents of the bill, may be ranked Gen. Erastus Root,
of Delaware county, from the middle district, and Gov.
Lewis may be considered as its leading and most efficient
advocate.

The bill finally passed by the follo^ving vote: —

Affirmative — Arnold, Bishop, Haight, Hall, Hopkins,
Humphries, Lewis, Livingston, Martin, Parris, Phelps,
Piatt, Rich, Smally, Smith, Stearns and Taber — seventeen
Negative — Bloodgood, Carle,Coe,Gilbert, Hubbard, Root,
Rouse, Sanford, Tayler, Townsend, White, Wilkin and
Yates — thirteen.

All the federal senators, and, I believe, all the federal
members of the assembly, except Mr. Lorillard of New-
York, voted for the charter.

I have no doubt that corrupt means were used to induce
members to vote for this bank; and, on the other hand, I
have no doubt that many, I hope a majority, of those who
finally did vote for it, honestly believed that the bill had
merits, and that the public interest demanded its passage.
A question, however, presents itself, of considerable im-
portance to a conscientious manj and it is this: — Grant
that the bill, in the abstract, had merits; that had the ap-
plication come directly from the stockholders, without
the interference of agents, or any improper conduct on the
part of the applicants, the public interest demanded its
passage; but concede further, that corrupt means had been
used to induce a part of the members to support the bill,

OF NEW-YORK. 3 15

who, erroneously, but sincerely believed it ought not to
be passed: under such circumstances, ought that portion
of the members, who honestly believed the passage of the
bill advantageous to the public, to have voted for it 1

Immediately after the question in relation to the Bank
of America was disposed of, and on the 28th of May, a
meeting of the republican members of the legislature was
held, at which Gen. James W. Wilkin was chairman, and
Alexander Sheldon, speaker of the assembly, was secreta-
ry, when Mr. Clinton was nominated as the candidate to
be supported for the next president by the republicans of
the state of New-York; and his support was recommended
to the republican party of the union. A committee of
seventeen gentlemen was appointed to use their efforts to
carry into effect the objects of the meeting.

Some democratic members from the southern and mid-
dle districts, among whom were Gov. Lewis and Nathan
Sanford, refused to attend this caucus. These gentlemen
professed to be in principle opposed to Mr. Clinton, while
others from the interior and western, and eastern parts of
the state, although personal friends of Mr. C, and sin-
cerely desirous of seeing him elected president, doubted
the expediency of nominating him for that office; because
such nomination might, in their judgment, divide and dis-
tract the republican party, and would eventually prove
injurious to Mr. Clinton himself. I have been informed
by gentlemen who were present on that occasion, and
who were friends of Mr. Clinton, that so many of
the members doubted the expediency of a nomination, that
it would not have been made had not Mr. Van Cortland
and other members of congress arrived from Washington,
urging, and bringing letters from Gideon Granger, post-
master general, also urging the immediate nomination of
Mr. Clinton. Judge Spencer and Judge Tayler still held
back, but finally were induced to attend, rather as specta-

316 POLITICAL HISTORY

tors, a meeting to deliberate on the propriety of holding
a caucus for the purpose of nominating. At that meet-
ing Gen. Root made a long and able speech against the
proposed measure. He showed that it could not be suc-
cessful. That as a republican candidate, Mr. Clinton
could not, and as the federal candidate he ought not, to
succeed. That the issue of the contest would be ruinous
to the political prospects of Mr. Clinton. Gen. Root
spoke of the character and talents of Mr. Clinton in terms
of high commendation; that the hopes of New-York
■were in a great degree centered upon him, that his nomi-
nation would blight those hopes, and he concluded a most
eloquent harangue by exclaiming, " Spare, 0 spare that
great man !" A majority of the members, among whom
was that shrewd and cautious politician, John W. Taylor,
notwithstanding the opposition, determined to proceed
and bring Mr. Clinton into the field. Judge Spencer and
Judge Tayler and a majority of the republicans, except
ing Mr. Lewds and the Martling men from New-York,
and I believe Gen. Root, finally acquiesced in the nomi-
nation; at any rate it was understood they would take no
steps to oppose it; and I perceive that Judge Tayler was
made one of the committee of seventeen. And here I
cannot help remarking, that Mr. Southwick, in the Re-
gister, was continually charging Gov. Tompkins, Judge
Spencer, Judge Tayler, and the secretary of state, Mr.
Jenkins, with decided and active hostility to Mr. Clin-
ton, while the New-York Columbian, the paper which
seemed to be the accredited organ of Mr. Clinton in that
city, claimed these gentlemen as the friends and support-
ers of Mr. C.

Nothing could have been more impolitic than the con-
duct of Mr. Southwick, in this respect. He undoubtedly
must have been acting from feelings of private resent-

OF NEW- YORK. 317

ment towards Gov. Tompkins, Judge Spencer and the
others.

The legislature adjourned on the 20th of June, and on
the same day congress declared war against Great Britain.
In the house of representatives the vote in favor of the
bill declaring war, was seventy-nine to forty-nine. Very
few of the republican representatives from New-York
voted for the measure. They opposed it, not because, in
their judgment, the nation had not sufficient cause of war,
but because we were unprepared for the commencement
of hostilities. Most of the republican members from
New-York who voted against the war were Clintonians.
In the senate, Mr. German, who, by general consent, was
understood to speak the sentiments of Mr. Clinton, made
a speech and voted against the war.

The declaration of war by congress, soon became al-
most the sole matter in controversy between the political
parties which existed in the nation. But the party which
opposed the war, in point of fact, consisted of two parties.
The old federal party opposed the war, on the ground that
we had no sufficient cause of war with Great Britain, or
if we had, we had still greater cause for war with France;
and that if we had commenced hostilities against the lat-
ter, the cause of our difficulties with the former would
have been removed. Another class of citizens opposed
the war, because they believed it declared prematurely,
and before the nation was prepared to assume a belligerent
attitude.

A very large majority of the old republican party ap-
proved of the war, and the time of declaring it.

At the September court of oyer and terminer, held in
the county of Chenango, Gen. David Thomas having been
arrested on a warrant issued by Judge Spencer, was in-
dicted by a grand jury of Chenango county, for an attempt
to bribe Casper M. Reuse, a senator from that county, tO'

318 POLITICAL HISTORY

give his vote for the incorporation of the Bank of Ame*
rica. Judge Van Ness presided on this occasion, and
Thomas was acquitted by the jury.

During the same month Solomon Southwick was indicted
and tried in the county of Montgomery, before Chief
Justice Kent, for an attempt to bribe Alexander Sheldon,
the speaker of the assembly, and found not guilty.

I may have occasion to state the substance of the proofs
offered to sustain the charges against these gentlemen.
At present I will only remark, that the proofs in the case
of Thomas as well as Southwick, were very strong, I had
almost said conclusive^ but that it appeared that both
Rouse and Sheldon entertained the propositions made
to them, concealed the affront, and for a considerable
time, at least several months, treated the men who they
alleged had attempted to corrupt them, as associates and
friends; and that Doct. Sheldon had voted for Southwick
for a regent of the university, long after the attempt to
bribe, and long before he made the complaint. By the
skill and address of the council who defended Gen.
Thomas and Mr. Southwick, the traverse jury seemed to
have been made to believe that their business was rather
to pass upon the merits of the complainants, than to pro-
nounce on the innocence or guilt of the accused. It did
not seem to have occurred to them that both Reuse and
Sheldon might be bad men, and yet that Thomas and
Southwick might have violated the statute by an attempt
to bribe them.

My excuse for mentioning these two cases is, that at
the time, the prosecutions were considered to be of a poli-
tical character, and because Gen. Thomas and Mr. South-
wick were considered prominent friends of Mr. Clinton,
and the charges against them tended to injure the cause
of Mr. Clinton.

In September an attempt was made by some repub-

OF NEW-iTORK. 319

licans of the union to induce Mr. Clinton to withdra-w
from the presidential canvass. With this view, Gen.
King, then of that part of Massachusetts called the pro-
vince of Maine, now the state of Maine, and half broth-
er to the late Rufus King, a man of considerable standhig
in the republican party, visited Albany, and had an inter-
view with Judge Spencer and Judge Tayler, whom he no
doubt considered as the friends of Mr. Clinton; in which
he stated that as he believed the republicans of the union,
and especially of the eastern states, entertained a high re-
spect for the talents and charater of Mr. Clinton, he
unquestionably stood the first man in the republican ranks
at the north; that at a proper time they would gladly yield
him their support for the presidency, that at the next
election he might be cordially sustained for the office of
vice-president; but that the war having been declared
under Mr. Madison's administration, the election of Mr.
Clinton in opposition to him, would be regarded at home,
and especially abroad, as an evidence that the American
people were opposed to the war, — an attitude he was sure
the majority of the people were unwilling to assume, — be-
sides which, the support of Mr. Clinton by any consider-
able portion of the republican party, (and without such
support it was evident he could not be elected,) would
inevitably break in pieces and destroy that party, and give
the federalists the ascendency.

Influenced by these representations and views, Judge
Spencer and Mr. Tayler, wrote a letter to Mr. Richard
Riker, a prominent member of the Clintonian committee,
introducing Gen. King to him, in which they recommend-
ed an arrangement which would avoid a competition be-
tween Mr. Clinton and Mr. Madison, and they concluded
by expresssing an opinion that " no event would exalt
Mr. Clinton higher than a surrender of his pretensions to
the presidential chair."

320 POLITICAL HISTORY

To this letter Mr. Riker replied on the 7th October,
that Mr. Clinton wouUl not withdraw from being a candi-
date, that he had been made such by the people, and they
had a right to his name. He adds, that the suggestions
of Gen. King, that Massachusetts will support Mr. Clin-
ton at the end of four years, cannot be listened to for
a moment; and that bargains between politicians are in-
consistent with the purity and dignity of republicanism
This correspondence Mr. Riker caused to be published.

It is very evident that Messrs. Spencer and Tayler did
not intend their letter for publication. Nor can I perceive
in it any evidence of unfriendly feelings towards Mr. Clin-
ton. The publication of it by Mr. Clinton's New-York
friends must have been with a view to the manufacture of
political capital. Of the expediency or propriety of the
act, diflferent men will now, as they did then, form differ-
ent, opinions.

The legislature met on the 2d of November for the pur-
pose of choosing electors. The candidates for the speak-
er's chair, were Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer of Colum-
bia county, on the federal side, and William Ross, on the
republican. Mr. Ross received forty-six votes, Mr. Hunt-
ington one, and Mr. Van Rensselaer fifty-eight, who of
course was elected. This vote showed a federal majority
of thirteen in the assembly. Mr. James Van Ingen was
elected clerk.

No sooner had the legislature convened, than it was
ascertained that about twenty republican members of the
assembly would not consent to voteforClintonian electors.
This little band was headed by Gen. Root. Mr. Martin
Van Buren, from the middle district, made his appear-
ance in public life for the first time at this session. He
had no agency in the nomination of Mr. Clinton by the
legislative caucus on the 28th of May, for he was not a
member of the legislature then in existence. What his

OF NEW- YORK. 321

private opinion of the expediency of that nomination
was, I do not know; but he had been trained up to the
doctrine, that on all mere personal questions it was the
duty of a politician to go according to the will of the
majority of his political friends, when that will was fairly
expressed. On the question of the support of Mr. Clin-
ton for the presidency, Mr. Van Buren considered that
the republican party had spoken at the legislative caucus
in May. The will of the party, as then expressed, he
deemed it his duty to aid in carrying into effect.

The parties in the legislature, as to numbers, stood as
follows : — in the senate there were nine federalists, four
Madisonian and nineteen Clintonian republicans; in the
assembly there were fifty-eight federalists, twenty-two
Madisonian, and twenty-nine Clintonian republicans.
The federalists could and did nominate federal electors in
the assembly, and the republicans nominated Clintonian
electors in the senate. This state of things, it will be
seen, would compel the Madisonians on joint ballot to vote
either for Clintonian or federal electors, or not vote at all.
In the sequel they adopted the latter course.

Notwithstanding this curious state of things, Mr. Van
Buren, on his arrival at Albany, found Mr. Clinton and
his friends entirely destitute of any plan of operations.
The talents, address and activity of Mr. Van Buren soon
placed him at the head of the republican friends of Mr.
Clinton in the senate, and in fact in the legislature. A
caucus of republican members was held for the purpose of
selecting candidates for electors, but such was the obsti-
nacy of the Madisonians that no ticket could be agreed
on which they would support. They insisted that a por-
tion of the electors should be run who would vote for
Mr. Madison, and to this the Clintonians would not con-
sent. Eventually a Clintonian ticket was agreed upon,

at the head of which Judge Yates was placed. That ticket

21

322 POLITICAL HISTORY

•was nominated in the senate. In the assembly the vote
stood for federal electors fifty-eight, Clintonian twenty-
nine, and Madisonian twenty-two. Of course the federal
ticket was nominated. Upon joint ballot the Clintonian
ticket received seventy-four votes, the federal forty-five,
and there were twenty-eight blank votes. The Madisonians
cast the blank votes. Of course a part of the federalists
voted the Clintonian ticket, which gave it a majority of
all the votes, and the Clintonian electors were therefore
declared duly chosen.

The governor's speech was principally confined to de-
tails of the incidents of the war then raging on the north-
ern and western frontier of the state, and the answer to
it by the assembly, was rather courteous than otherwise,
but pretty clearly indicating the groimds assumed by the
federal party during the war.

Upon the canvass of the presidential votes at Washing
ton, it appeared that Mr. Madison had received one hun-
dred and twenty-eight votes, and Mr. Clinton eighty-nine.
The states which voted for Mr. Clinton were New-York,
New-Jersey, Delaware, all the New-England states except
Vermont, and Maryland, gave him five votes. He did
not receive a single vote south of the Potomac.

OF NEW-YORK. 323

CHAPTER XVII.

BANKS.

Unfortunately the chartering of banks has had a
considerable influence on political parties, and their action,
m the state of New-York. For this reason the history of
political parties among us would be quite imperfect, with-
out at the same time presenting some view of the pro-
ceedings of the legislature on the various applications
which, from time to time, were made for charters by
banking companies. And, on many accounts, I have
thought it would be more acceptable to the reader to sub-
mit a brief statement of these proceedings, detached, as far
as it can be, from other political operations.

The first banking association formed in this state was
in the year 1784, when a joint stock company in the city
of New-York was organized. The articles of co-partner-
ship were drawn by Gen. Hamilton, and the capital
invested was five hundred thousand dollars. (2 i/cTTi. 279.)

Under these articles, or constitution, as they were called,
the company commenced and continued banking opera-
tions, till March 21, 1791, when it was chartered, under
the name of the Bank of New-York, which company is
now in existence. The articles of association bore date
February 26, 1784. It will therefore be perceived, that
more than seven years elapsed, after they commenced
banking business, before the legislature granted them a
charter, and that the state government had been in opera-
tion about fourteen years before any bank charter was
granted.

The fact was, the community were smarting under the
losses sustained by the continental paper money system,

324 POLITICAL HISTORY

The legislature of New-York were therefore unwilling,
by any act of theirs, to countenance the issue of paper, as
'mo7t.ey, by any association whatever. Hence no charter
could be obtained for the only banking company in the
state, until after that company had been in operation for
more than seven years. " A memorial," says Mr. John
C. Hamilton, (2 Ham. 340,) " to incorporate the bank of
which the constitution had been framed by Hamilton, was
presented to the legislature early in 1784, but so prevalent
was the jealousy ofmofieyed influence that it was compelled
to conduct its affairs during six years without coporate
immunities. The cry arose that banks were combinations
of the rich against the poor," &c. These " corporate
immunities," of which Mr. Hamilton speaks, were the
privilege of sueing in their corporate names, and an ex-
emption of liability of the individual stockholders for a
greater sum than the amount of stock held by them. No
sane man then dreamed of granting to these companies
the exclusive right of issuing and circulating their notes
as cash.

In 1792 the Bank of Albany was chartered, with a
capital of two hundred and forty thousand dollars; and in
1793 the Bank of Columbia, located at Hudson, where it
was proposed to open a foreign trade and to establish the
whale fishery business, by a company from Rhode Island,
was chartered, with a capital of one hundred and sixty
thousand dollars. The Bank of New-York had a capital
of a million of dollars. So far, the question of charter-
ing banks had been kept entirely clear of party conside-
rations. It was a mere question whether the convenience
of the community, and the exigencies of commerce, de-
manded these institutions; and, until the year 1799, the
sum of one million and six hundred thousand dollars only,
was employed for banking purposes.

From the election of John Adams to the presidency, in

OF NEW-YORK. 325

1796 party excitement had prodigiously increased, and at
no point in the Union was party heat more intense than
in the city of New-York: especially from 1798 to 1800.
The stock and direction of the Bank of New-York was in
the hands of federalists. It had, no doubt, fallen into
their hands, not in consequence of any political manoeu-
vring, but by the natural course of trade and traffic among
the citizens. Col. Burr, and some of his political friends,
believed that the power of that bank was used to patron-
ise and encourage business men who were federalists, and
to cramp and embarrass those who held republican princi-
ples. Hence the origination of a plan to incorporate an
additional bank in the city. But this project could not be
carried into effect by the consent of the legislature, inas-
much as a majority of both houses of the legislature were
federal; and even the republican part of the members
were so jealous of the corrupt influence of moneyed institu-
tions that few of them would consent to charter a bank in
a city which already was furnished with one institution.
The result, therefore, w^as a conclusion that the real object
of the scheme must be concealed: that is, the legislature
must be blindfolded, and, in that condition, must be indu-
ced to do that which they would not do with their eyes
open. In other words, it was deliberately contrived to
cheat the legislature out of a charter; and the following
was the scheme contrived: — The yellow fever had then
recently made dreadful ravages in the city. That event,
with other circumstances, called the attention of the pub-
lic to the necessity of a plentiful supply of the city of
New-York with pure and wholesome water; and tlie le-
gislature were, -with great plausibility, invoked to charter,
on the most liberal terms, a company who professed their
willingness to undertake so useful an enterprVse. As it
was uncertain what amount of capital might' be required
to effect the contemplated object, and with a view to avoid

326 POLITICAL HISTORY

any chance of failure on account of a deficiency of capital,
the company requested to be authorized to raise two mil-
lions of dollars; but as it was possible, and indeed proba-
ble, that the construction of the water works would not
absorb the whole of that sum, they asked for a provision
that the " surplus capital might be employed in any way
not inconsistent with the laws and constitution of the
United States, or of the state of New-York." This request
seemed to be but reasonable, and yet, under the authority
of these few words, one of the most powerful and formida-
ble moneyed monopolies has grown up that ever existed
in this state. It is certain that an immense majority of
the legislature did not entertain the least suspicion that
this charter contained a grant of banking powers.

Mr. Davis, {in 1 Burr, 413,) says, " that it has been
said that the charter was obtained by trick and manage-
ment, and that, if suspicion had been entertained by any
of the federal members. Col. Burr could not have got the
bill through the legislature." Now, I do not contend but
that some of the federal members may have known that
the real object of the bill was to create a bank; but might
not those same federal members have had secured to them
an interest which would make it profitable to them to have
the bill become a law '? Was not human nature the same
then as it was in 1805, and in 1812, when the Merchants
Bank and the Bank of America were chartered 1 But
will Mr. Davis pretend — will any man pretend — that, if
a majority of the members had been apprised of the real
object of the bill, it would have passed 1 Certainly notj
and Mr. Davis virtually admits it. But Mr. Davis justi-
fies, and claims triumphantly to have justified, Col. Burr,
by afl^irming that he did not misrepresent or misstate to
any meral^er the object he had in view. Indeed ! Col.
Burr did noi positively utter a falsehood, and, therefore,
he was not gii,ilty of fraud and trick. By the moral, as

OF NEW-YORK. 327

well as municipal law, I had supposed that the suppres-
sion of truth, in cases of this sort, rendered the actor
equally culpable as would the affirmation of a falsehood.
Col. Burr was a member of the legislature, and had so-
lemnly sworn to perform his duty as such member. The
bill was hurried through both houses, at the heel of the
Session, and, in the senate, was reported complete by a
select committee, and was never referred to the committee
of the whole of that house. True, Mr, Davis says that
Col. Burr stated the object of the bill to one federal sena-
tor from the western district, who, I infer, was Mr. Tho-
mas Morris.

The attention of the council of revision, to the clause
under which banking powers were claimed, was called by
the chief justice, to whom the bill was referred. But,
ft-om an extract from their minutes, which will be found
in 1 Burr, 415, it is very evident that it did not seem to
the members of that body that in passing that bill they
were chartering a bank which was to exist as long as the
government lasted. From the words used by the chief
justice, who objected to the bill in consequence of the
clause in question, he appeared to be apprehensive that
the company would employ their capital in trade, &c.
The idea of banking, it is most evident, never came into
his head. A majority of the council, of which the pure
minded John Jay was then president, passed the bill, not-
withstanding the objections of the chief justice.

Would John Jay have passed a bill chartering a bank,
which he must have known had passed the two houses
without their knowledge that it contained such a grant 1
I do not believe it. It will not be forgotten that the po-
litical power created by chartering this institution was
eventually used for the prostration of Col. Burr himself,
and his immediate friends. Was it not retributive jus-
tice ?

328

POLITICAL HISTORY

The next bank chartered, which partook of a party
character, was the New-York State Bank, at Albany.

The applicants for a charter for this institution alleged
that the bank of Albany was owned by federalists, and
that its power was wielded in such manner as to be op-
pressive to those business men w^ho belonged to the repub-
lican party. They further alleged that the public conve-
nience, and the interest of trade and commerce, demanded
another bank at the seat of government. So far, all was
fair on the part of the applicants. They were open and
frank in declaring the object of their application, and the
reasons on which it was founded. But, as proof of the
monopolizing and greedy spirit of men, a part of whose
business it was to drive bank charters through the legisla-
ture, truth compels me to state that this republican com-
pany had connected with their application a most gigantic
scheme of speculation, if not of peculation. They peti-
tioned the legislature that, in the same act by which the
bank was to be chartered, an exclusive grant might be
made to them, or a lease might be given them, of the salt
springs in the state for a long time, say sixty years; the
company stipulating that salt should always be in readi-
ness, and for sale at the salt works in Salina, at a price
not exceeding five shillings per bushel j and also that they
would pay the state three thousand dollars a year rent, for
the first ten yearsj three thousand and five hundred dol-
lars for the second ten years; and four thousand dollars
annually thereafter. | At that time the value of the salt
springs was not generally known in the state, and the
public were equally ignorant of the expense of manufactu-
ring salt, as is evident from the offer made to put the
maximum price at five shillings for the same quantity of
salt which, it has since been ascertained, can be manufac-
tured for six cents.

Elkanah Watson, a man who has since been pretty well
X Sec Note I.

OF NEW-YORK. 329

known in the state, was the most efficient agent of this
company, and there is still extant, and will be found
among the curious documents preserved by Doct. Beck,
in the Academy at Albany, a printed scheme, drawn by E.
Watson, of the mode to be pursued in order so to drill the
legislature as to induce them to pass this law. No doubt
he, and some others, knew well the value to the state
of the salt springs. The petition was signed by John
Tayler, Elisha Jenkins, Thomas Tillotson, Ambrose Spen-
cer and others, and was presented to the senate and refer-
red to Mr. L'Homedieu and two other senators, w^ho
reported a bill granting the prayer of the petitioners, in-
cluding the exclusive right to the salt springs ! Some ot
the western members, who foresaw the exorbitant mono-
poly which a lease of the salt works for a long term of
years would confer on the company, made an outcry about
it, and the company prudently consented to strike out that
provision in the bill. After this clause was stricken out
one would have supposed that the company would have
been sure of success by resting upon the merits of the
bill. But the company, before their petition was present-
ed, had agreed on a dividend of stock among themselves,
and reserved a surplus to be distributed among the mem-
bers of the legislature. It appears from the affidavit of
Luther Rich, a member from the county of Otsego, and
several other affidavits, that assurances were given that
those members who voted for the bill should have stock,
with a further assurance that the stock would be above
par. This was the commencement of that corrupt prac-
tice.* I have taken the above account principally from

* William A. Clark, of Orange county, who, in 1803, was a member of assembl^i
gave me a different account of the manner in which the stock of the State Bank
•was distributed. He stated that the applicants founded their claim to a charter
upon the ground that it should be a republican bank ; and with a view, as wps
pretended, to insure it that character, they agreed that each republican member
should be entitled to subscribe for a given number of shares, and that this pTivii

330 POLITICAL HISTORY

a statement signed by Doct. Samuel Stringer and James
Van Ingen, as chairman and secretary of a public meeting
held in Albany, in the spring of the year 1803. It was,
it is true, a party meeting, but as Doct. Stringer and Mr.
Van Ingen are known to have been highly respectable
men, I cannot believe they would venture to publish any
facts, affecting the conduct and character of their neigh-
bors, which they did not know existed.

It has been already stated that before the State Bank
was chartered, a joint stock company had been formed in
the city of New-York for the purpose of banking, upon
principles similar to the association of the company which
commenced the New-York Bank in the year 1784, and
that a like company had also been formed in Albany, by
the name of the " Mercantile Company." These compa-
nies applied for a charter at the same time with the com-
pany which composed the State Bank. They alleged that
the friends of the latter institution had agreed to support
their application; but the State Bank by some means got
ahead of the other applications, and when that company
had obtained their charter, some of its supporters fell off,
and the bills to charter the Merchant's Bank of New-
York, and Mercantile Company of Albany, failed of be-
coming laws. These companies therefore charged the
friends of the State Bank with bad faith.

lege was secured to every republican member, whether he voted for or a£:ainst the
bank. But this does not vary the corrupting tendency of the proposals of the ap-
plicants. Admit that such was the fact, and, at the same time, admit, what un-
doubtedly is true, that it was well known that the shares would sell in market
above par, and it required but an indifferent share of common sense for any mem-
ber to perceive that he would fail in realizing any benefit from the stock unless
the bank was chartered ; which, again, could not be done unless a majority of the
members voted for it.

A story was put in circulation about Judge Peck, (then a member of the assem-
bly,) which has rather too much the appearance of fiction to be entitled to credit,
although many, even at this day, believe it. It is s^iid he subscribed for rather an
unusual number of shares — and being an influential member it is not improbable
that he did so, if he subscribed at all — that he did nnt choose to subscribe his real
Bame, and therefore adopted for his signature, Jedediah Butk»l, instead of Jede-
diab Peck.

OF NEW-YORK. 331

At the succeeding session, on the 11th of April, 1804,
insteid of incorporating these joint stock companies, the
legislature passed the celebrated restraining law, by which
all unincorporated companies, under severe penalties, were
prohibited from banking, and by which these companies,
although they had invested their money as they lawfully
might do, under the existing laws, were compelled to
wind up their concerns.

I cannot on this occasion refrain from remarking, that
even at that time bank paper was the medium through
■which business transactions were principally conducted,
and the precious metals had ceased to be the circulating
medium in the state. The banks, therefore, in point of
fact, exercised the power of coining, what for all practical
purposes was the money of the people.

The aggregate of capital then actually invested in char
tered banks in the state, exclusive of the capital of the
Manhattan Company, did not at that period, amount to
two millions of dollars, and including the whole nominal
capital of the Manhattan Company, did not exceed four
millions.

Suppose there had been but one company, and this four
millions,which probably in fact did not exceed two millions,
had been held by such company, and waving any restric-
tions contained in the United States constitution, it had
been proposed to grant this company the exclusive right
of issuing or coining money, who would not have been
alarmed at such a proposition 1 Such in effect was the
restraining law.

It may, it is true, be necessary for special and peculiar
reasons to grant exclusive privileges to an individual, or to
a limited number of individuals, but inasmuch as these
grants infringe upon the equal rights of all, they ought not
to be tolerated except for reasons the most cogent. Be-
cause every grant of exclusive rights is the taking pre-

332 POLITICAL HISTORY

cisely as much from the quantum of rights, to the e'njoy-
ment of which the whole community is entitled, as is thus
exclusively granted. This position may be illustrated by
supposing the whole community to consist of one hundred
persons, and that they jointly own one thousand dollars,
if then, you grant to an individual, exclusively, one hun-
dred dollars of the joint funds belonging to the hundred
associates, there will remain but nine hundred dollars of the
aggregate funds of the association.

At the session in 1805, the company composing the
Merchants Bank, applied for a charter. The application
was based on the ground that more banking capital was re-
quired to facilitate commercial and other business in New-
York, and that having invested their capital for banking
purposes, when by law they had a right so to use it, and
having incurred considerable expense in the prosecution
of their objects, they claimed from the justice of the le-
gislature either an act of incorporation or the privilege of
using their money in the manner they were by law author-
xised to do when they incurred those expenditures. These
grounds would seem to entitle them to some relief. But
the leading representatives in New- York, among whom
De Witt Clinton was the most efficient, (some of w^hom
being largely interested in, and directors of, the Manhattan
Company,) and also, several of the most influential re-
publicans of Albany, at the head of whom were John
Tayler and Judge Spencer, and who, by the bye, were
deeply interested in the State Bank, warmly opposed this
application. They did not ostensibly oppose it because
the increase of banks would diminish the profits of exist-
ing institutions, but because they alleged that the public
interest did not require an additional bank in the city of
New- York J and because, as they asserted, the granting of
the application would he injurious to the republican party.
Hence, their papers, the American Citizen, and Albany

OF NEW-YORK. 333

Register, were made to announce that the applicants were
" federalists and tories," and urge that as a reason why
the republican members ought not to listen to the appli-
cation.

The applicants finding they were resisted for reasons
exclusively of a party character, which assuredly was
wrong, resorted to measures still more unjustifiable than
those taken by their opponents, to secure the granting of
their charter. Isaac Kibbe,a Burrite of some distinction,
was appointed their agent. Through him, and ihrough
Ebenezer Purdy of the senate, it afterwards appeared that
corrupt offers had been made to members of the legisla-
ture if they would vote for incorporating the Merchants
Bank. The few federal members who then belonged to
the senate, voted for it. With them, Messrs. Purdy,
Savage, Hogeboom, Burt and other republican members
voted, so as to make up the number of fifteen ayes.
There were twelve noes.

When the bill came into the assembly, it was taken in
charge principally by William W. Van Ness, then a federal
member from the county of Columbia. After some proceed-
ings upon it were had in that body, and after a question had
been taken on the first clause in the bill, which was adopted
by a majority of votes, a complaint was made, that the com-
pany had, by their agents, attempted to bribe some of the
members of both houses; and a committee was appointed
to inquire into the truth of the charge, consisting of Gil-
bert of New-York; Livingston, German, Mclntyre, Ar-
cularius, Sylvester and Lush. On the motion of one of
the federal members, the committee, after considerable
debate were instructed to inquire if any corrupt means had
been used by these and other applicants for bank charters,
by which it was no doubt intended to inquire into the
means used by the State Bank to obtain its charter; but

334 POLITICAL HISTORY

it does not appear that this branch of the inquiry was
undertaken by the committee.

Upon investigation it appeared that the applicants had
offered John Ballard, Gurdon Huntington and Peter Betts,
members of the legislature, if they would vote for the
bank, the right of subscribing for a given number of
shares, with a guarantee that those shares should be
purchased of them at an advance of twenty-five per cent.
It also appeared that Purdy had offered the right to
Stephen Thorn, a senator, to subscribe for thirty shares,
and promised to advance him five pounds in cash for each
share, and also that he had assailed Obadiah German, an
influential member of the assembly, with great importu-
nity, promising to him fifty shares, with a guaranty
that if he chose to sell them, he should make in
clear profit one thousand dollars. These facts appeared
from the depositions of Ballard, Huntington, Betts, Thorn
and German. But notwithstanding these palpable proofs
of attempts at corruption, and the almost irresistible in-
ference that some of the members who voted for the bank
had been tampered with, and refused to disclose the cor-
rupt offers which had been made to them, and which they
had accepted, the vote in favor of the bill on its final
passage in the assembly, was stronger than the vote on its
enacting clause. Of the proceedings in the council of
revision I have already given an account.

Cheetham, in the American Citizen, had charged the
senate with corruption in the passage of the law incorpo-
rating the Merchants Bank, and the senate, on motion of
Mr. Van Vechten, instructed the attorney general to pro-
secute him for the libel. Subsequently the attorney
general, Mr. Woodworth, in obedience to the resolution,
caused the alleged libel to be submitted to a grand jury
of New-York, but they refused to find a bill This affords

OF NEW-YORK. 335

pretty decisive evidence of what public opinion was in
that city.

During the proceedings in the legislature upon the bill
in question, much accrimony among the members was ex-
cited. So heated did Judge Taylor and Judge Purdy
become, that the former committed a personal assault upon
the latter, by knocking him down as he was passing
from the senate chamber, and almost within the bar of the
senate. What effect these collisions had on political par-
ties I have noticed in another place. [See J^ote BJ\

No other applications for bank charters were made,
which were seriously pressed until the year 1812, when
the Bank of America was incorporated. I have hereto-
fore alluded to the disgusting scenes, which, in the pro-
gress of that application were exhibited. From the affi-
davits of Silas Holmes, Nathaniel Cobb, Bennett Bicknell,
A. C. Comstock and Isaac Ogden, all members of the le-
gislature, which will be found at large on the journals of
the house of assembly for 1812, it is evident that the
most shameless attempts were made to corrupt the mem-
bers, and there is too much reason to believe that in
some instances, those attempts w^ere successful. One is
pained and sickened at the evidence these depositions
alFord of the degeneracy of human nature. John Mar-
tin, the preacher whom I have mentioned as a sub-agent
of the bank, was convicted of attempting to bribe mem-
bers of the legislature, contrary to the statute of 1806,
and sentenced to confinement in the state prison. I have
before alluded to the trial of Mr. Southwick, for an at-
tempt to bribe Mr. Speaker Sheldon, and I shall not now
take up the time of the reader by relating the particulars
which were disclosed in relation to the disgraceful trans-
actions connected with the incorporation of this insti-
tution j but shall merely as a specimen of the mode of man-
agement by the bank agents, give a summary of the testi-

336 POLITICAL HISTORY

mony of Casper M. Rouse, a senator elected from the
county of Chenango on the Clintonian ticket in April,
1811, against Gen, Thomas. I have before stated that
Gen. Thomas, as the agent of the bank applicants, in the
fall of 1811, went on a mission through the southern and
western counties. Mr. Rouse says, that Gen. Thomas, in
the latter part of October, or first of November, came to
Norwich where he resided, and sought and obtained a
private interview with him. Gen. Thomas commenced
by saying that a scheme of the Lewisites and Martling
men, (a party to whom he knew Mr. Rouse was opposed,)
had been formed for procuring a charter to another
bank in New-York; and that an application would also be
made to charter the Bank of America. That if that bank
was incorporated. Rouse should have ten shares in it.
Rouse then stated that he had not a favorable opinion of
banks, and besides he had no money to invest in bank
stock. To which Gen. Thomas replied, that if he did not
wish to keep the stock he would pledge his honor that he,
(R.) should realize one thousand dollars clear profits from
the shares. It does not appear that Mr. Rouse gave the
General any definitive answer, and Thomas left him
with a request that he would call on Mr. Southwick as
soon as he sould arrive in Albany, when he went there
to take his seat as a member of the senate. I seems
Rouse did not call on Southwick, nor did he vote for the
bank, but about the middle of March, when the bank
agents became alarmed for fear of an explosion, Mr. John
Van Ness Yates, on Sunday, called on Mr. Rouse, and
requested him to call and see Gen. Thomas. He did so,
when he, the General, asked him if he had divulged the
conversation which took place at Norwich, and Rouse an-
swered that he had not. Thomas earnestly requested him
not to do so, and told him, that although he had or should
vote against the bank, he should have his one thousand

OF NEW-YORK. 337

dollars. It is hardly possible to suppose that this state-
ment, verified by the oath of senator Rouse, was in sub-
stance false. What possible motive could he have had'
for committing so foul a perjury 1 If the story of Rouse
was substantially true, can there be a doubt of the guilt
of Gen. Thomas'?

It is proper, however, to add, in justice to the memory
of Mr. Thomas, that Rouse voted for him as treasurer in
February, in preference to Mr. Lansing, and that Gen.
Thomas published an affidavit voluntarily made by him
contradicting the material facts sworn to by Mr. Rouse.

No other very serious collisions arose upon the char-
tering of banks under the old constitution. The odium
attached to all those implicated in the corrupt means used
to promote the incorporation of the Bank of America,
was so great and so lasting that no attempts of the kind
were made for a long while afterwards; and the iniquitous
proceedings of former legislatures in relation to granting
charters to moneyed institutions, had been so disgraceful
to the state, and were so fresh in the recollection of the
members of the convention of 1821, as, beyond all ques-
tion, induced them, with a view" to the prevention of these
practices, to insert the clause in the present constitution
which renders necessary the assent of two-thirds of
both houses of the legislature in order to incorporate a
moneyed institution. The intention of the convention
was good, but the clause failed to accomplish the object
intended. Witness the proceedings in passing the law to
incorporate the Chemical Bank, and other institutions, in
1825. The only effect of the restrictive clause in the
constitution has been to increase the evil, by rendering
necessary a more extended system of corruption, in some
form, than was before indispensable.

Since the disclosures of 1825, no direct evidence of cor-
ruption, as a means of procuring bank charters, has been

22

338 POLITICAL HISTORY

furnished — but that power of the legislature, guarded as
it has been by the restraining law, has in latter years been
exercised for rewarding the services of political partisans;
a practice, which, when viewed in all its consequences,
is more dangerous than that pursued by the applicants for
the Bank of America. In the one case, the applicants
corrupted those to whom the people had delegated power;
in the other, the very source of power is intended to be
corrupted — in the one, the legislature were corrupted by
the applicants; in the other, the legislature corrupted the
people.

I will dismiss this subject after submitting one or two
remarks.

In my judgment, at the time the Manhattan Bank was
chartered, an additional bank was required in the city of
New-York; and further, I believe that the applications to
incorporate the State Bank, the Merchants Bank, and the
Bank of America, were meritorious, and ought, standing
on their own merits, to have been granted, and that the
error consisted in permitting those interested in banks to
make a political question of a matter not properly such,
with a view to subserve their own individual interests.

That if banking is properly regulated, as it is under
the safety fund law the multiplication of banks to any
reasonable extent, can have no other effect than that of
diminishing the profits of existing banks, and even if
banks are multiplied so as to render money invested in
them unproductive, no serious evil can ensue; for the stock-
holders can, beyond a doubt, at any time pay back to each
one his share of the capital, and on payment of the lia-
bilities, invest their money in some more profitable busi-
ness.

That the question arising on the chartering of a bank,
therefore is not political, but is a question affecting princi-
pally the stockholders of existing banks, and those who

OF NEW-VORK. 339

■wish to become stockholders; and that, therefore, the real
question is, or rather was before the passage of the free
banking law, between monopolists and those who desire
to become monopolizers.*

That such a heartless controversy should repeatedly
have convulsed and broken up great political parties, that
it should in its progress have blasted the prospects and
destroyed the usefulness of so many talented, and in other
respects worthy citizens, and finally, that it should have
marred the character for purity of our state legislature,
and fixed an indelible and enduring stain upon the repu-
tation of the empire state, is deeply to be deplored.

* The question respecting chartering a national bank intolves other and Tory
difTerent considerations.

340

POLITICAL HISTORY

CHAPTER XVIII.

FROM MAY 1, 1812, TO MAY 1, 1813.

Shortly after the peace of 1783, a society was formed
in the city of New-York, known by the name of the Tam-
many Society. It was probably, originally instituted with
a view of organizing an association antagonist to the Cin-
cinnati Society. That society was said to be monarchical
or rather aristocratical in its tendency, and, when first
formed, and before its constitution was amended, on the
suggestion of General Washington and other original
members, it certainly did tend to the establishment of an
hereditary order, something like an order of nobility.
The Tammany Society originally seems to have had in
view the preservation of our democratic institutions, as far
as possible, from contamination by the adoption of any of
the aristocratic principles which were connected with the
governments of the old world.

A sketch of the prominent features, and of the history
of the Tammany Association, has been kindly furnished
me by an old and highly respectable citizen of New- York,
the Hon, Judah Hammond, which, without having obtained
his express permission, I take leave to inseit: —

" Tammany Society, or Columbian Order, was founded
by William Mooney, an upholsterer residing in the city
of New-York, some time in the administration of President
W^ashington. The institution takes its name from the
celebrated Indian Chief Tammany, whose attachment to
liberty was greater than his love of life. It has a Grand
Sachem and thirteen sachems, in imitation of the president
and governors of the states, at the time it was founded; a
secretary, a sagamore, the master of ceremonies, and a

OK NEW-YORK. 3-il

wiskinkie, the door-keeper; a grand council, of which
the grand sachem and the other sachems are members.
The father of the council is the presiding officer; the
scribe records the proceedings of the council. The laws
mention the council fire, the calumet, or pipe of peace,
and the tomahawk, which they bury when the pipe is
smoked. It dates from two eras, the discoA-ery of America
by Columbus, and the founding of the institution. It di-
vides the year into seasons, as the season of snow, the
the season of blossoms, the season of fruits. The twelfth
day of May is kept as its anniversary.

" William Mooney was one of those who, at that early
day, regarded the powers of the general government as
dangerous to the independence of the state governments,
and to the common liberties of the people. His object
was to fill the country with institutions designed, and men
determined, to preserve the just balance of power. His
purpose was patriotic and purely republican. The con-
stitution provided by his care, contained, among other
things, a solemn asseveration, which every member at his
initiation was required to repeat and subscribe, that he
would sustain the state institutions, and resist a consolida-
tion of power in the general government. Tammany was,
at first, so popular, that most persons of merit became
members; and so numerous were they that its anniversary
was regarded as a holiday.

" At that time there was no party politics mixed up in
its proceedings. But when President Washington, in the
latter part of his administration, rebuked " self created
societies," from an apprehension that their ultimate ten-
dency would be hostile to the public tranquility, the mem-
bers of Tammany supposed their institution to be included
in the reproof; and they almost all forsook it. The foun-
der, William Mooney, and a few others, continued stead-
fast. At one anniversary they were reduced so low that

342 POLITICAL HISTORY

but three persons attended its festival. From this time it
became a political institution, and took ground with Tho-
mas Jefferson. The writer of this article joined it about
the year eighteen hundred and three. At the time of his
initiation the regular meetings were ordinarily attended
by about ten or fifteen members. The institution gradu-
ally increased in numbers, and made a great rally about
the year eighteen hundred and twelve, in support of presi-
dent Madison's administration, and to secure his re-elec-
tion in that year. Five hundred new members were initi-
ated in one year, and there was a great return of old
members who had been lax in their attendance. About
the year eighteen hundred and fourteen I ceased to be
an attending member, and consequently lost sight of its
internal polity, and know not what intestine changes
have passed upon its ancient lineaments, further than
these are discernible in its public policy."

The leaders of the party in the city of New-York,
which I have described under the denomination of Mart-
ling men, were generally members of this society. Thus
organized, they were enabled to act with prodigious effect
upon the democratic party in the city. By their efforts,
and by the course taken by Mr. Clinton, which was some-
times, to say the least, indiscreet, before the year 1813 an
immense majority of the republicans of New- York became
decidedly opposed to him; and the united influence of the
democracy of that great city, it will readily be perceived,
was calculated to have a considerable influence ujion the
republican party in the state.

The Tammany or Martling party were extremely ap-
prehensive, that Mr. Clinton's standing among the repub-
lican members of the legislature from the cour.'try, was
still such, as would enable him to induce a mnjority of
them to consent to his re-nomination as lieutenant gover-
nor. Under these impressions, early in January they got

OF NEW-YORK. 343

up a meeting in the city, at which they recommended a
state coriyention for the purpose of nominating a governor
and lieutenant governor. Of this meeting, Jonathan
Thompson, afterwards collector of the port, was chairman,
and John L. Broome, son of the late lieutenant governor,
was secretary.

About this time a new paper, which was understood to
be the organ of the Tammany party, was established in
New-York, under the name of the National Advocate.
Henry Wheaton, then recently from Rhode Island, and
since well known as a man of distinguished talents, was
its editor.

The legislature met at Albany on the 12th of January,
and on the same day chose a council of appointment.
The gentlemen elected, were Peter W. Radcliff from the
southern, James W.Wilkin from the middle, John Stearns
from the eastern, and Jonas Piatt from the western dis-
tricts. All of these gentlemen were federalists, except
Gen. Wilkin, who was elected because there was no fede-
ralist in the senate from the middle district.

As the term of service of Gen. John Smith, in the sen-
ate of the United States, would expire on the 4th March,
it became necessary for the legislature to appoint a suc-
cessor.

It has been stated that there was a federal majority in
the assembly, but that in the senate the republican major-
ity was greater than the federal majority in the assembly.
It was, therefore, fair to presume that a republican senator
•on a joint ballot would be chosen; but the event disap-
pointed that reasonable anticipation. Mr. Rufus King
was nominated by the assembly by a vote of fift)r-five to
forty-four, and Mr. James W. Wilkin, a senator from Or-
ange county, was chosen by the senate. Upon a joint
'ballot Mr. King had sixty-eight votes and Gen. Wilkin
sixty-one. There were three blank "otes- What was

344 POLITICAL HISTOKY

the cause of this result 1 By the Tammany party it was
charged to Mr. Clinton. They alleged that thi? was the
consideration for which the federalists, in November,were
induced to give the Clintonians the presidential electors.
On the other hand, the republicans who had supported
Mr. Clinton insisted, that it was the result of a bargain
made by Gen. Thomas and Mr. Southwick, by which they
agreed, that if the federalists, as a body, would vote for
the incorporation of a bank, they would secure to the fed-
eral party the election of the next senatorj and there is a
fact within my knowledge which induces me to believe
that the latter supposition is the more probable.

In the year 1817, when Mr. Clinton was a candidate
for nomination for the office of governor, by the republi-
can members of the legislature, this charge was brought
against him. Gen. Wilkin was then a member of con-
gress and at Washington. I was there also. Mr. Clinton
addressed to me a letter stating that a report was in circu-
lation charging him and his friends with having, in pursu-
ance of a previous agreement, combined to defeat the elec-
tion of Gen. Wilkin to the senate of the United States,
and requesting me to call on him and obtain his contra-
diction of it. I did soj and Gen. Wilkin addressed to me
a letter, which I forwarded to Mr. Clinton, and w^hich is
probably now among his papers, in which Gen. W. de-
clared his utter disbelief in any foundation for the report.
He was convinced, he said, that his election was defeated
by the influence and votes of the friends of the bank.*
Besides, it would have been so vile an act of treachery in
Mr. Clinton to sacrifice so constant and steady a friend as
Mr. Wilkin, and the man who had been president of the
legislative caucus which nominated him for the presidency,

• As an act of justice to Mr. King, it is proper to state that no individual of any
party ever suspected that he was a party to, or had knowledge of, any negotia-
tion either with the Clintonians or the bank men.

OF NKW-YORK. 345

that so heinous a charge ought not to be sustained or tole-
rated without strong and positive proof. I am, however,
inclined to believe that the knowing ones in the republican
party had made some discoveries by which they had rea-
son to believe that the chances of success in the election
of a republican senator, was, to say the least, very dubi-
ous. The office was a desirable one to men of the first
talents and standing in the state; and Gen. Wilkin, though
a perfectly amiable and very upright man, had not that
high standing and powerful influence in the party which
several other republicans in the state had; and, it seems
to me, that had they been sure that a republican senator
would have been elected, a sharper competition for the
office would have been exhibited, and probably some other
person would have been nominated.

In August, 1812, the attorney general, M. E. Hildreth,
died, and Thomas Addis Emmett, the celebrated Irish ad-
vocate, was appointed his successor. The misfortunes,
persecution and sufferings of that great and good man in
his native country, the purity of character and exalted
virtue he evinced, and the splendid triumph he deserved
and obtained in his adopted country, are well known; but
his wonderful powers of mind, his transcendent talents,
and his unrivalled eloquence as an advocate, will not be
known to posterity, because all those who heard him and
felt the powers of his mighty intellect, (and none but such
can form an adequate idea of his merits and superiority
over all other men,) will soon follow him to the tomb.
Mr. Emmett did not seek the office. The state admmis-
tration invited him to accept it, and I apprehend the espe-
cial reason of their doing so was that they might avail
themselves of his talents on the trial of Thomas and
Southwick.

The last act of the council which was chosen in the year
I8l2,was their best act. On the 14th January, they appoint-

346

POLITICAL HISTORY

ed Gideon Hawley, Esq. under the law passed by the last
legislature for the better organization of schools, superin-
tendent of common schools. ^Ir. Hawley was then a
young lawyer resident in Albany, of habits indefatigably
industrious, modest and retiring, but possessing great be-
nevolence of heart, vigorous intellectual powers, and high
literary attainments. For the paltry salary of three hun-
dred dollars a year, he perfected a system for the manage-
ment of the school fund; the organization of every neigh-
borhood in this great state into school districts; for a fair
and equal distribution of the bounty of the state into every
district; and he devised a plan of operations by which
this vast machinery could be moved and managed by a
single individual. The state have never rewarded him for
his labors, but posterity will, it is believed, do justice to
his merits, his services and his character. If the man who
invents the means of improving the working of inani-
mate machinery, in controlling its power, or in chang-
ing the face of the globe by artificial water commu-
nications, be, as he truly is, entitled to the gratitude of his
fellow beings, what meed of praise does that individual
deserve who efficiently aids in pouring a flood of light on
the human intellect, and adding indefinitely to the mass
of mind 1

The federal council met for the first time on the
the eighth dav of February. A difference of views among
the then federal members, was disclosed in the first ap-
pointment which was made. Gen. Piatt moved the re-
appointment of De Witt Clinton as mayor of New-York,
and to this appointment Mr. Radcliff objected. A majo-
rity however, voted in favor of the appointment, and it
was effected, but Mr. Radcliff caused his dissent to be en-
tered on the minutes of the council. The particular cause
of Mr. Radcliff's dissent was, that in 1810, his brother,
Jacob Radcliff, (formerly a judge of the supreme court,)

OF NEW-YORK. 347

had by the Robert Williams council been made mayor in
place of Mr. Clinton, and in the succeeding year had been
compelled to give place to Mr. Clinton. The dissent there-
fore, of Mr. Radcliffmay have been caused more by fraternal
affection than the amor patrite. But what could induce
Gen. Piatt to have taken a course on this single appoint-
ment, which he must have foreseen would produce a
state of feeling, that would embarrass their proceedings at
that critical juncture of the fortunes of the federal party,
through the remainder of the time in which that council
would exist 1

Mr. Plattj who at this time may be regarded as the
most influential man in the federal party, was a lawyer
who had been in extensive practice, and though his talents
were not brilliant, they were of a character highly rtspec-
tablej his morals were perfectly purej though he possessed
a deep and intense tone of feeling, and a high sense of
personal honor, he had acquired, apparently, an entire
control over his passions; his quiet and calm deportment
indicated a contemplative and considerate mind, not lia-
ble to be hurried into the adoption of ill-adjusted plans^ or
to determinations which might lead to actions indiscreet
or ill advised. His address was unobtrusive, modest and
conciliatory. He had a high regard to courtesy and pro-
priety, as well in respect to political conduct as in the
private and social concerns of life. He and other leaders
of the federal party in New- York, had within a few
months past, recommended to their political friends in the
other states of the union to support Mr. Clinton for the
first office in the nation. Since that support had been
given in pursuance of such recommendation, no man could
pretend that Mr. Clinton had done anything to lessen him
in the estimation of the federalists. In what light then
would Gen. Piatt and his friends in this state appear to
their friends abroad, and to the American public in gene-

348

POLITICAL HISTORY

ral, were they to refuse to re-appoint, and were they, in
effect, to remove from the comparatively petty office of
mayoralty of New-York, (an office, the duties of which it
is universally admitted Mr. Clinton had discharged with
great ability and to the entire satisfaction of the citizens,)
a man whom they had so recently recommended as fitted
for the office of president of the United States 7

This consideration alone, must have had a powerful ef-
fect on the mind of Gen. Piatt; while it seems not at all
to have reached the sensibilities of his colleague of the
southern district. But there were other considerations,
which, no doubt, bore with great force on the minds of
Mr. Piatt and Mr. Stearns.

From the course of conduct of Gov. Tompkins, Judo-e
Spencer and Mr. Tayler, towards Mr. Clinton, for the
year past, they had reason to anticipate what eventually
took place, that he would oppose the re-election of Gov.
Tompkins. Is it not probable that they had direct as-
surances to that effect? They no doubt mistook and over-
rated the influence of Mr. Clinton among his republican
friends. In aid of that delusion, they already learned
that some of his most prominent friends, as the Van
Cortlands, Gen. German, and sundry other distinguished
men were in advance of Mr. Clinton in denouncing Gov.
Tompkins, Judge Spencer, &c., but they did not know,
or if they knew, they did not properly appreciate the
principles which had influened the rank and file men of
the republican party who had supported Mr. Clinton for
the presidency. Of the principles which governed this
by far the most numerous class of Mr. Clinton's re-
publican friends, I shall have occasion to speak in another
place.

For the reasons which I have assigned. Gen. Piatt
would not consent to gratify the ardent desires of Mr.
Hadcliff, by the appointment of his brother as mayor of

OF NEW-YORK. 349

New-York, to the exclusion of Mr. Clinton. Mr. Rad-
clifF took honor to himself for being a federalist of the
old school, one of the leading maxims of that school be-
ing, to wage a perpetual war against every man who had
appeared in the ranks against them, however effectually
his political views and principles might have changed.
A most reasonable and sagacious policy for the govern-
ment of a party in the minority, who are struggling to
regain poAver. Mr. Radcliff, by his conduct in this coun-
cil, lost the confidence of his political friends, which he
never afterwards regained.

The council met again on the 13th of February, when
Mr. Piatt moved that Thomas Addis Emmett be removed
from the oflfice of attorney general. On this question Mr.
Radcliff refused to vote, but Mr. Stearns voting for the
resolution, although Mr. Wilkin and the Governor voted
against it, it was declared carried; no doubt on the ground,
that by the constitution the governor had a casting vote
only, and that here could be no tie, two members of the
council voting for and only one against the motion. As
Mr. Radcliff refused to vote he was regarded as absent.

It was now evident that Mr. Radcliff was determined
to embarrass the proceedings of the council, for Mr. Em-
mett was one of the most ardent friends of Mr. Clinton;
and if Mr. R.. as a federalist of the old school, was war-
ring against Clintonians, why should he refuse to vote
on the question of Mr. Emmett's removal 1 The office
of attorney general having become vacant by the removal
of Mr. Emmett, Mr. Van Vechten was appointed in his
place.

It is probable that Mr. Piatt found that his federal
friends would not be satisfied, if the council continued the
Clintonians in office. They also held to the maxim long
afterwards announced, that " to the victors belong the
spoils;" for I perceive that the Clintonians in New-

350 POLITICAL HISTORY

York, who filled some of the most lucrative offices in the
city, were nearly all removed and federalists appointed in
their places. Among these were Gerrit Gilbert, son of
Senator Gilbert, who was removed from the office of clerk
of the city and county, and P. C. Van Wyck, from the
office of recorder. Mr. Piatt moved for the displacing of
Mr. Van Wyck, and his motion was adopted by the votes
of the three federal councillors. He then nominated J.
O. Hoffman for a successor. Mr. Radcliff nominated Ca-
leb S. Riggs, di federalist of the old school^ but Mr. Hoff-
man was appointed by the votes of Piatt, Stearns and
WilkvL. Mr. Radcliff moved the removal of Sylvanus
Miller from the office of surrogate, and the appointment
of Peter Hawes in his place. Mr. Piatt objected to the
form of the motion as embracing too much. The ques-
tion was put and negatived by the votes of Piatt, Stearns
and Wilkin. It is more than probable that the cause of
Mr. Radcliff's opposition to Mr. Hoffman, was that he
was known to be favorable to the re-appointment of Mr.
Clinton.

The removal of republicans and the appointment of
federalists, including little as well as great offices, by this
council, was general throughout the state.

The Bank of America applied to be relieved from pay-
ment of the bonus, the payment of which was by the act
of incorporation, made a condition upon which their char-
ter was granted. They alleged that it was impossible to
get their stock taken if the bank was to be charged with
such heavy payments, and they also asked a large reduc-
tion of their capital. With respect to the reduction of
their capital the legislature granted their request, and they
remitted the whole of the bonus with the exception of
one hundred thousand dollars, which was to be paid to
the common school fund.

A strenuous opposition was made to this application by

OF NEW- YORK. 351

the former opponents of the bank; and it was charged in
private circles and in some of the public papers, that the
bank had again resorted to corrupt means to accomplish
its object. Whether these allegations had any foundation
in truth, we have at this day no means of knowing, as no
depositions were taken.

On the 28th of January of this year, Robert R. Living-
ston, late chancellor, died, in the sixty-sixth year of his
age. His life had been active and useful, and in politics,
he long occupied a large space in the public mind. I
have before spoken of his talents and address. Whatever
were his merits as a judge, or a politician, and they were
by no means inconsiderable, his less brilliant efforts in
improving the breed of sheep in his native country, and
the liberal encouragement which by his wealth and influ-
ence he afforded Mr. Fulton in his discoveries of the
means of applying steam power to navigation, will do
more to perpetuate his name and fame, as a benefactor to
his country, than his address and skill as a political leader,
or his splendid display of eloquence while a member of
that grand council which adopted the federal constitution.
By his death the Livingston family were emphatically
deprived of their head; and since that event, and the re-
moval of Edward Livingston from the state, and the
appointment and acceptance of Brockholst Livingston, of
the office of associate judge of the United States, and af-
terwards his death, the influence of that family, as such,
can hardly have been felt in the political operations of
parties in the state.

Charles Z, Piatt, a federalist, was, by a law of the two
houses, created treasurer, in lieu of Gen. Thomas. This
act was passed on the 10th day of February.

Very sharp collisions began to be exhibited between the
two houses of the legislature, on all questions of legisla-
tion which related to the prosecution of the war against

352 POLITICAL HISTORY

Great Britain. The state presented a frontier which was
eminently exposed to the attacks of the enemy, on its
southern, northern and western borders. This rendered
the duties and reponsibilities of the governor uncommonly
laborious, and very great; and he was by no means want-
ing in his efforts to discharge those duties faithfully and
efficiently. The democratic majority in the senate, mani-
fested every disposition to aid him by all constitutional
means, while the federal majority in the assembly wished
not to go farther in support of a war which many of them
professed to believe unjust, and all of them believed pre-
maturely declared and badly conducted, than was demand-
ed of them by a strict construction of the constitution and
laws of the United States.

The militia, which had been called out by the governor,
the last autumn, under the command of Gen. Van Rensse-
laer, had returned dissatisfied with the service, and with the
arrangements made by the government for their manage-
ment and support. They were also disgusted with the ill
judged and unsuccessful attack on the British soldiery at
Queenstown. The federalists availed themselves of this,
and all other unsuccessful efforts to carry on the war; and
their movements in the assembly tended rather to excite
than quiet discontent.

The national government, soon after the commencement
of the war, became embarrassed for the want of funds to
carry it on; or rather, they found it difficult, if not impos-
sible, to collect the revenue in that kind of money, or
negotiate their stock for that sort of currency which, con-
stitutionally speaking, might be called money. The
United States Bank had ceased to exist, and there was,
therefore, no national paper currency. Great Britain then
controlled, as now she continues to control, the money
market of the world; and she being our enemy, specie
could not be obtained from abroad, nor, in fact, could for-

OF NEW- YORK. 353

eign loans, in the then state of Europe, have been effectefi,
had the effort been made to do so. The national govern
ment, therefore, had no other means of defraying its ex-
penses than by borrowing money of the banks chartered
by the different states, on the credit of its stock, and by
issuing, for circulation, its own notes called treasury notes.
But the banks of Boston, and indeed the whole of New-
England, were mainly under the control of federalists,
and they refused to loan a single dollar to the government,
or to do any act which might give credit or currency to
treasury notes. Of course the national treasury was sup-
plied by loans from the state banks south and west of
New-England, and the disbursements made in the paper
of the banks last mentioned. It w^as evident that one of
two results must be produced by these operations: either
all the specie in the United States would flow into the
vaults of the New-England banks, or the banks of the
states, other than those of New-England, must suspend
specie payments; and the latter course was adopted.
The consequence was, that the bank paper in this, and in
all the states south and west of it, forthwith began to
depreciate. The paper of the New-York banks was the
nearest in value to specie, but the further you advanced
south or w^est from New-York, the greater, generally
speaking, was the depreciation.

In this state of things, a resolution, purporting to be
joint, passed the senate, that the state should loan to the
nation five hundred thousand dollars, the better to enable
it to sustain its credit and make its necessary disburse-
ments. This measure was advocated with great power
and effect by Mr. Van Buren, Gen. Root and Gov. Lewis;
but when the resolution was sent to the assembly it was
there met by the zealous, and finally successful, opposition
of Attorney General Van Vechten, Elisha Williams, an
able and eloquent lawyer from Columbia county, and Mr.

23

354 POLITICAL HISTORY

Daniel Cady of Montgomery . In that house the republicaa
party were defective in speaking talent. Mr. Ross, it is
true, spoke often, but his arguments failed in producing
much effect when put in competition with such giants as
Elisha Williams and his compeers. The burden of resist-
ing the federal majority fell principally upon John W.
Taylor, of Saratoga, who, though not a brilliant man, was
a man of excellent good sense, and a wary and cautious
debater.

On the fourth day of February a legislative caucus was
held by the republican members, for the purpose of nomi-
nating a governor and lieutenant governor. According
to the Albany Register only forty-eight members attended
on this occasion. What was the reason that no greater
number was present does not appear. It may be, that
some members declined to attend in consequence of the
resolutions of the Tammany men in favor of a state con-
vention. As respected the candidate for governor the
meeting were unanimous, but there was a difference of
opinion as to who should be supported for lieutenant gov-
ernor. A portion of the members still adhered to Mr.
Clinton, and were for re-nominating him. Judge Spencer
had, for some time, openly denounced him, and both he,
and his friend, Col. Jenkins, were exceedingly active in
opposing Mr. C.'s re-nomination.

There can be little doubt, that the confidential and secret,
if not the open and avowed, influence of Gov. Tompkins,
was exerted against Mr. Clinton. Whether Mr. Van
Buren took an active part either way, I am not advised;
and, from the circumstance of his not being assailed in the
Albany Register, I am inclined to believe, that, at any
rate, he did not take a very active part against ]\Ir. Clin-
ton. The result finally was, that Mr. Clinton received
but sixteen votes, while John Taylor received thirty-two
votes, and was declared duly nominated. Mr. Van Buren

OF NEW-YOKK. 355

drew the address issued by the republican members on
this occasion. It has been often referred to by his friends,
and so full an account has been given of it by his biogra-
pher, (Holland,) that little need be said of it here. I
ought however, perhaps to add, that the address contained
a lucid and able review of the controversy between Ame-
rica and Great Britain. It sustained, with strong force of
argument, the course which had been pursued by the na-
tional government, and appealed, with great pathos and
eloquence, to the patriotism of the people.

Mr. Van Buren has been blamed for his support of Mr.
Clinton, as inconsistent with the zealous support he yielded
to the war, and to the re-election of Mr. Tompkins; and,
as is usual in such cases, both Clintonians and Madisoni-
ans have cast imputations upon him, but, in my judgment,
wholly without cause.

A large majority, if not all the members of the New-
York legislative caucus, which nominated Mr. Clinton for
the presidency, were ardent in support of the war mea-
sures pursued by the national government, and many of
them were dissatisfied with the sluggish movements and
inertness of Mr. Madison. I presume one reason why
they preferred Mr. Clinton to Mr. Madison, was, because
they believed the former would pursue the war against
Great Britain with more efficiency and more energy than
the latter, but they had not the most distant idea of sepa-
rating themselves from the great republican party in the
state or nation. At any rate, I know this to have been
the feelings of Mr. Clinton's republican friends in the coun-
try. I can have no doubt that Mr. Van Buren entertained
similar impressions. Besides, he was not a member of the
legislature which nominated Mr. Clinton. He only saw
in the result of that caucus an expression of the wishes of
the republican party on a given question. Was he wrong
in attempting, in good faith, to carry those wishes into

356 POLITICAL HISTORY

effect? Why, then, should the minority of the republi-
cans, who thought Mr. Madison ought to be supported,
condemn Mr, V. B. for the course he took 1 Was it not
his duty, and had he not the same right to follow the
honest dictates of his own judgment as they had, especially
where he had evidence that his own views were in accord-
ance with those of the republican party in the state, as
declared by their representatives?

Mr. Clinton, and his immediate friends, had still less
reason to complain of Mr. Van Buren for supporting
Tompkins. The presidential question was disposed of.
A new question was presented, and that was, whether, in
accordance with the wishes of those who had elected him,
he would support the republican candidate for governor,
or whether, contrary to the principles he had professed
from his boyhood, he would support a federal candidate
for governor, simply because Mr. Clinton did not choose
to support the candidate of the republican party 1 No
man possessing common honesty, and a particle of self
respect, could, without feelings of resentment, hear such a
question even agitated in his presence. Conceding that
Mr. Van Buren was, in principle, attached to the republi-
can party, his conduct was not only politically, but mor-
ally justifiable. Indeed, it could not have been other
than it was, without a palpable violation of principle and
of duty.

On the 11th of February the federal members of the
legislature, together with many respectable citizens, held
a caucus at Albany, of which Judge Egbert Bensonwas
chairman, and Daniel Parris was secretary; at which Ste-
phen Van Rennselaer was nominated for governor, and
George Huntington, of Oneida county, for lieutenant go-
vernor.

The private characters of these gentlemen were, in all
respects, perfectly unexceptionable, and high hopes were

OF NEW-YORK. 357

entertained by the federalists of success.* A circumstance
which added considerably to these hopes, was, that an
address was issued signed by Philip Van Cortland, Oba-
diah German, and thirty-nine other distinguished friends of
Mr. Clinton, who claimed to be members of the republican
party. The address attacked, with severity, the conduct
of the general administration; reviewed the presidential
contest; and protested against the support of Tompkins
and Taylor, alleging, that they were the mere partizans
and tools of the cabinet at Washington. It was extremely
well written, and from its style and matter, was, with
great probability, ascribed to the pen of Mr. Clinton.

It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the general
election in April was very severely contested; but, con-
trary to the expectation of calculating men of both parties,
and to the bitter mortification of the federalists, Tompkins
and Taylor w'ere elected, and the republican senatorial
ticket succeeded in three, out of the four districts.

Jonathan Dayton was elected to the senate from the
southern, Lucas ElmendorfF and Samuel C. Ver Bryck
from the middle, James Cochran and Samuel Stewart from
the eastern, and Farrand Stranahan, Henry Bloom and
Pearley Keyes from the western districts.

* In cousequence of the last census, a new apportionment of representatives in
congress was made, and, therefore, a new division of the state into congressional
districts should have been made by the legislature, at their winter session in 1812;
but the prorogation prevented the passage of such an act before the April election.
For this reason the election of members to the house of representatives did not
take place until after the November session, when the proper law was passed, and
an election ordered in December following. At that election, out of thirty repre-
sentatives, the federalists elected two-thirds. The result of this appeal to the
people, as was alleged, on the war question, afforded great triumph to the oppo-
nents of Mr. Madison's administration, and increased the already sanguine hopes
of the federalists, of success at the general state election in April.

The venerable Egbert Benson was chosen from the second district, which inclu-
ded the city of New-York. He was far advanced in life, but the residue of the
federal members were most of them comparatively young men. Hence they were
called " Judge Benson's boys," being nineteen in number. The appellation was
the more ludicrous because the judge was a bachelor.

358 POLITICAL HISTORY

The result of the vote was as follows: —

Southern District, Rep. Maj 593

Middle " " " 1452

Western " " " 3274

5319
Eastern District, Fed. Maj 1713

Rep. Maj. in the State, 3606

But, notwithstanding this success in the senatorial dis-
tricts, and in the election of governor, the federalists
obtained a majority in the assembly, in consequence of
the election of federal members, by a small majority, from
the city of New-York.

The very decided part taken by Mr. Southwick, in the
Albany Register, against the election of Gov. Tompkins,
and indeed against the republican party in the state and
nation, induced the establishment, during the summer of
1813, of the Albany Argus, under the charge of Jesse
Buel, Esq., who had formerly printed the Plebian, in the
county of Ulster. Mr. Buel, though not a brilliant, was
a very discreet and judicious man, and the Albany Argus
soon became the organ of the republican party at the seat
of government.

Upon the pressing recommendation of Judge Spencer
and Gov. Tompkins, and other friends to the national
administration. Gen. John Armstrong had, in the autumn
of 1812, been appointed secretary of the department of
war, and he now began to be talked of as the most suitable
man to succeed Mr. Madison in the presidency. Judge
Spencer, who had always been, and to this day continues
to be, his devoted friend and admirer, was loud in his
praise, and openly spoke of him as a candidate.

In the autumn of this year Mr. Curtinius was removed
from the office of marshal of New-York, and Gen. Smith,

OF NEW-YORK. 369

United States senator, appointed in his place. Mr.
Schenck was also removed from the office of surveyor of
the port of New-York, and Mr. Haff was appointed his
successor. These removals were made upon the pressing
recommendation of Judge Spencer, as was alleged, for
no other cause than that the incumbents were the political
and personal friends of Mr. Clinton.

360 rOLITICAl- HISTORY

CHAPTER XIX.

PKOM MAY 1, 1S13, TO MAY' 1, 1814.

Governor Tompkins had by this time obtained a strcng
hold on the feelings of the citizens of this state. He had
avoided so far as he could, a direct collision with the
friends of Mr. Clinton. Although Clinton being a man
of that temperament and character of mind, that whenever
he discovered that a person professing to be his political
friend, declined entering into all bis views, forthwith broke
off all political intercourse with him; (which perhaps was
a fault,) and therefore, by this time, was open in his de-
nunciations of Gov, Tompkins, still the governor contrived
to retain the friendship of many Clintonians. This re-
sult was the more easily produced, because Judge Spencer,
always open in his hostility, always ardent and sometimes
bitter in his political controversies, was waging a most
furious war against Mr. Clinton, and all his supporters;
and in consequence thereof, was much more the subject
of attack in the Clintonian newspapers and public and
street conversation, than the governor. Tompkins was by
no means displeased with this state of things. He had
already cast an eye upon the presidency, and the late de-
feat of Mr. Clinton, had in the opinion of Mr. Tomp-
kins, rendered him Hors du combat. Him, therefore, he
could no longer regard as a rival, but Gen. Armstrong,
if the next president was to be taken from New-York, was
a formidable one. The governor knew that the strength
of Armstrong in this state depended greatly on the in-
fluence of Judge Spencer, with the republican party here.
It was then obviously the interest of Gov. Tompkins to
weaken as far as he could the influence of Spencer. It

OF NEW-YOKK. 361

is, therefore, highly probable that he viewed the increase
of personal unkind feeling towards Judge Spencer with
more complacence than regret.

Not many days ago, in a conversation with an old and
experienced politician, an exceedingly judicious man and
one who has looked profoundly into the human heart,
who for more than twenty }ears was a member of the
United States house of representatives, and was repeated-
ly elected speaker of that body, (John W. Taylor,) in
relation to Gov. Tompkins, he remarked that he never
knew a man who had fixed his hopes upon the presidency
who would not sacrifice all personal considerations, and
all pre-existing friendships to attain his object.

Another cause of the popularity of Gov. Tompkins
was, that there was no circumstance which could be
brought to the view of the people by which their
jealousy of him could be excited. He was not a rich
man, nor had he any powerful connexions. He was the
son of a practical farmer of Westchester county, and his
favorite title with the people was the " Farmer's Boy.'*
To other advantages he added a most fascinating address.
Professor Renwick, in his life of Clinton, (page 66,)
says; — " Tompkins with no remarkable native powers of
mind, and but little acquirement even, as a lawyer, pos-
sessed in a most eminent degree, the art of ingratiating
himself with the people. He had the faculty, which is
invaluable to him who seeks for popular honors, of never
forgetting the name or face of any person with whom he
once conversed; of becoming acquainted and appearing
to take interest in the concerns of their families;, and of
securing, by his affability and amiable address, the good
opinion of the female sex, who, although possessed of no
vote, often exercise a powerful indirect influence."

I may be allowed to say, although I had little personal
acquaintance with Gov. Tompkins, that in my judgment,

362 POLITICAL HISTORY

the professor underrates his talents. I think, the skill and
tact with which he moulded the minds of men to his own
purposes, and the prudence with which he for a long time
conducted himself at the head of a state containing such
strangepolitical materials as did the state of New-York, du-
ring that period, are of themselves, evidence of much more
than ordinary mental powers; and although he w^as taken
from the bar and the bench when he was too young to have
become a profound and learned lawyer, yet I have never
heard that the opinions which he delivered while he was a
judge of the supreme court were considered unw'orthy of
the reputation for learning and talents w^hich a judge of that
high tribunal ought to possess. Of the evidence of talent
which his communications to the legislature afford, while
he was governor, I have heretofore spoken. What Mr.
Renwick says of him in respect to his peculiar faculty of
never forgetting the name or face of a person with whom
he had ever conversed, is literally true; and I could relate
several instances within my own knowledge, some of which
are almost unaccountable in confirmation of its verity.
This faculty, although rare, is of great use to the man who
holds an eminent station in a popular government. It is
said that Scylla, the Dictator, personally knew every citi-
zen of Rome, and that he could call them all by name.
This extraordinary quality of mind may have been of as
much use to him in contested elections as was the splen-
dor of his military achievements in Asia.

The extraordinary and almost miraculous success of
Gov. Tompkins at the election of 1813, after the strong
demonstrations of a federal majority in the congressional
elections in December preceding, and in the face of the
opposition of Mr. Clinton and some of his most power-
ful friends, while it aflforded evidence of his popularity
added to it. In war success is said to sanctify crimes, in
politics it converts errors into catholic doctrines.

OF NEW-YORK. 363

There was anotner circumstance which added greatly to
the popularity and standing of Tompkins. The whole
five New-England states had become federal, and New-
Jersey, if not already, seemed hastening to become so. The
federalism of the eastern states was of the most ultra kind.
It was apprehended that they were determined either to
change the administration, or to secede from the union,
and form a separate peace with Great Britain. This,
however, they would hardly have the temerity to do, if
New-York continued to support the national administra-
tion. But if New-York joined them, or even became
opposed to the further prosecution of the war, the finan-
cial affairs of the nation would become so straightened and
embarrassed, as would have compelled either a change of
the administration, or the submission of the United States
to a disgraceful peacej and, in the event last referred to,
the administration would, of course, be prostrated. No
wonder then, that the eyes of republicans throughout the
nation should have been fixed with deep and painful anxi-
ety on the election of governor in New-York. The suc-
cess of the democratic party was hailed by the democrats
abroad, and especially by Mr. Madison and his cabinet,
•with unspeakable joy and exultation. That success was
imputed, and perhaps justly imputed, to the personal
popularity of Tompkins, and his universal popularity
abroad increased his popular standing at home.

The legislature convened on the 25th January. James
Emott, a respectable lawyer from Dutchess county, was
the federal candidate for speaker, and William Ross was
the candidate of the republican party. Mr. Emott received
fifty-eight votes, and Mr. Ross forty-eight, shewing a
federal majority of ten in the assembly.

The governor's speech was chiefly confined to a detail
of the events of the war. In the course of his speech, he
alluded to the law of congress laying a direct tax, the

364 POLITICAL HISTORY

portion of which to be raised in the state of New-York,
was four hundred and thirty thousand one hundred and
forty-one dollars and sixty-two cents. This act provided,
that if any state preferred a voluntary assumption and
payment of its portion, and paid the same into the national
treasury by the 20th of February, a deduction of fifteen
per cent should be made, and if thus assumed and paid by
the 1st of May then a deduction of ten per cent should be
made. The Bank of America, and some other banks,
were pledged to loan the state, when called on for that
purpose, moneys to a much larger amount than the quota
of the state of the direct tax; and the governor recom-
mended that the state should assume the payment of its
portion of the tax, and pay the same by a loan from those
banks, to be re-imbursed by a tax, to be levied and col-
lected in the ordinary way, by the state. The speech
was referred to Messrs. D. B. Ogden, Bleecker and Ross.
Late in the preceding autumn the British had made an
incursion on the Niagara frontier, and had burnt a consid-
erable part of the village of Buffalo. On the first day of
the session, and as soon as the house was organized, on
the motion of Mr. Jacob R. Van Rensselaer, a federal
member, the assembly passed a resolution, purporting to
be joint, for loaning to the sufferers, in consequence of
this attack, fifty thousand dollars. Mr. Ross made an
ineffectual effort to postpone the consideration of the reso-
lution. The motion for a postponement was negatived
by a party vote. As the federalists were constantly being
charged with opposition to the war, &c., their unusual
«arly movement in this matter must have been with a view
of affording evidence to the inhabitants of the frontier, of
their sympathy for those who were suffering in conse-
quence of the depredations of the enemy, and with the
further intent of being before hand with the senate in
support of a measure which, it was presumed, would be

OF NEW-YORK. 365

popular, especially in the western district. In the resolu-
tion, the commissioners for distributing the money were
named. They, of course, were federalists. When the
proposition was acted on in the senate, it was amended by
striking out the names of the federal commissioners, and
inserting, in their place, the names of republicans. With
this amendment the assembly non-concurred. A collision
in this way occurred between the two houses, and for some
time it seemed doubtful whether the sufferers would not
be deprived of the bounty of the state, merely because the
two parties could not agree on the appointment of agents
to distribute it. Such a contest was discreditable to both
parties.

The assembly also, on the first day of their meeting,
elected a council of appointment. Un^prtunately for the
federalists there were no federalists in the senate from
both the middle and western districts, the term of service
of Messrs. Platt_, Hall and Phelps, having expired; and
the federalists finally selected Mr. Henry A. Townsend,
of Steuben county, as their councillor.

Mr. Townsend was elected, in 1810, as a republican,
and it does not appear that he had, at any time, professed
a change of principles; but he was a friend of Mr. Clin-
ton, and his support of that gentleman, together with his
vote for incorporating the Bank of America, had brought
him in collision with Judge Spencer and other zealous
politicians. These were, probably, the circumstances
which led to his selection.

The result of the vote, for members of the council, was
as follows: — Elbert H. Jones, fifty-six; Morgan Lewis,
fifty-six; Samuel Stewart, fifty-six; Henry A. Townsend,
fifty-seven; Nathan Sanford, forty-nine; Lucas Elmendorff,
forty-eight; Henry Yates, jun., forty-eight; and Farrand
Stranahan, forty-eight, t

Before the expiration of the term of service of the

366 POLITICAL HISTORY

council chosen in 1813, the office of chancellor became
vacant, by Mr. Lansing's being ineligible in consequence
of his age. Chief Justice Kent was therefore appointed
chancellor, and Smith Thompson succeeded him as chief
justice.

On the 3d February, Elisha Jenkins was removed from
the office of secretary of state, and Jacob Rutsen Van
Rensselaer, the late speaker, appointed in his place.
What produced this long delay in displacing Mr. Jenkins
I cannot state, unless it was that the office was intended
for Mr. Van Rensselaer, and that the discharge of its du-
ties was deemed incompatible with a satisfactory per-
formance of the labors which are necessarily cast upon
the speaker.

The only question of importance, which the council of
1814 were called on to decide, was that of the appoint-
ment of a judge of the supreme court, which was rendered
necessary to supply the vacancy produced by the elevation
of Chief Justice Kent to the office of chancellor, the
greater part of the offices in the state being held by per-
sons who belonged to the party which held the majority in
the assembly.

Gen. Piatt was the candidate most favored by a large
majority of the federalists. The object of Mr. Lewis,
who now claimed to be most purely and exclusively a
republican, seems to have been to prevent Mr. Piatt's
appointment. Mr. Townsend was considered, and per-
haps correctly so, as the representative of Mr. Clinton,
and as speaking his wishes in the council. At any rate,
the public held Mr. Clinton responsible for every act done
by Mr. Townsend. Gov. Tompkins acted in concert and
harmony with Mr. Lewis: a singular alteration since 1807,
when Gen. Piatt was supporting Mr. Lewis against Mr.
Tompkins. Mr. Clinton was ap cused of bargaining with
the federalists to procure Gen. Piatt to be appointed a

OF NEW-YORK. 367

judge of the supreme court; in consideration of which, it
was said, the federalists had stipulated that Mr. Clinton
should be continued in the mayoralty of l^ew-York.
With a view to strengthen this suspicion, and with the
further view to detach from Mr. Clinton the greatest pos-
sible number of his supporters, and possibly with some
hope that the appointment of Mr. Piatt might be prevent-
ed, Mr. Lewis nominated Richard Riker, of New-York,
for a judge of the supreme court. To show t,he embar-
rassment this nomination must have occasioned' to Mr.
Townsend, as the friend of Mr. Clinton, it is only neces-
sary to recollect that Mr. Riker was the second of Mr.
Clinton in the Swartwout duel; that he had ever since
continued to be his personal and political friend, in all the
wars with the Burrites, Lewisites and Tammany men that
subsequently occurred in the city of New- York; andHhat,
as we have seen, he was at the head of the committee to
promote the election of Mr. Clinton to the presidency.
But, if it would seem inconsistent for Mr. Townsend, as
the friend of Mr. Clinton, to vote against the appointment
of Riker, it was equally inconsistent and unnatural for
Mr. Lewis to nominate him; for Riker had been steadily
and violently opposed to Lewis, and Lewis to him, from
the year 1805, to the year 1814; and yet Lewis did nomi-
nate Riker, and Townsend did vote against that nomina-
tion. Misery, it is said, makes a man acquainted with
strange bed fellows, and so does party politics. As re-
spects the fitness of Riker for the office of judge, when
compared to Piatt, I imagine all will agree that Piatt was
the most suitable and fit man. Mr. Piatt was appointed,
and Mr. Riker, ever after, ceased to be a friend to Mr.
Clinton.

Party heat never was higher, in the legislature, than
during this session. The strong republican majority in
the senate, and the zeal of that majority to aid in the vigo-

368 POLITICAL HISTORY

rous prosecution of the war, induced that body to propose
a variety of measures, in accordance with their views,
which, when presented to the assembly, were generally
resisted, and by the majority rejected. The republican
party in the assembly, though still in the minority, had
received a great accession of moral power by the last elec-
tion. John Savage, late chief justice, from Washington
county, Samuel Young, the late canal commissioner, from
Saratoga county, Aaron Hackley from Herkimer county,
and William C. Bouck, late a canal commissioner, from
Schoharie county, together with several others, were all
new members, all young men of great promise, and all
possessed of talents of a high order.

The federalists, as a party, from the time of John Adams,
had always professed themselves the friends of a navy,
and'they complained of Mr. Jefferson for his neglect in
not encourageing, supporting and adding to that arm of
the national defence. Hence, when a naval victory was
achieved over the British, or a naval defeat on our side
occurred, they, in one case, were most forward to express
their exultation, and, in the other, their regret, while they
manifested very little sensibility at any disaster to the
American forces engaged in the land service.

As a specimen of the party action of that day, I think
proper to state the proceedings which took place in the
assembly, in relation to several naval actions which had
then lately taken place.

A federal member from the city of New-York, Mr.
Charles King, on the 28th of January, offered the follow-
ing resolutions: —

" Resolved^ That although we cannot approve of the
disastrous and destructive war in which we are engaged,
the house of assembly of the people of the state of New-
York feel great satisfaction in expressing their admiration
of the conduct of Com. Perry, and his gallant associates,

OF NEW-YORK. 369

in their action with the British squadron upon Lake Erie,
on the 11th Sept. last, and the high sense they entertain
of the gallantry of Lieut. Burroughs, of the United States
brig Enterprize, who died after conquering a vessel of
equal force belonging to the enemy.

" That they deeply lamentthe fall of captains Lawrence
and Allen, by which their country is deprived of the ser-
vice of two officers who had already so highly entitled
themselves to its admiration and gratitude —

" That, in the opinion of this house, the conduct of our
naval commanders and seamen during this ruinous war,
ought to satisfy every reflecting mind that our commercial
rights are to be defended and maintained by a navy, and
not by embargoes and commercial restrictions."

Mr. Savage, with a view of rendering the resolutions
acceptable to the whole house, offered a substitute for the
first resolution, in which the words " although we cannot
approve of the disastrous and destructive war in which we
are engaged^'' were omittedj but the substitute was reject-
ed by a party vote. The second resolution was passed
by an unanimous vote. When the third resolution f^as
under consideration, Mr. Young moved to strike out the
•word " ruinous," and that part of it which condemned the
embargo and restrictive measures. This amendment was
also rejected by the same vote, and the resolutions, as
offered by Mr. King, were adopted.

The answer of the senate to the governor's speech was
drawn by Mr. Van Buren, and is an admirable production.
The senators assured the governor of their readiness to
co-operate with him in all proper measures to defend the
country, and to preserve its honor and independence.
They conclude their address with the expression of the
following just and patriotic sentiment: —

" That on questions of general policy, or the fitness of

individuals for particular stations, we shall ever be ex-

24

370 POLITICAL HISTORY

empted from differences of opiniorij is not to be expected.
Divisions like those are inseparable from the blessings of
our free constitution; and although sometimes carried to
an excess which all good men must deplore, they are, not-
withstanding, generally productive of much national good.
But to suppose that a people jealous of their rights, and
proud of their national character, would, on a question of
resisting the aggressions of an open enemy — aggressions
which have polluted our soil, and which threaten the sub-
version of those inestimable political institutions which
have been consecrated to freedom by the blood and suffer-
ings of their fathers — that on a question of such vital
interest, so well calculated to excite all the patriotism, to
arouse all the spirit, and to call into action all the ener-
gies of the nation, they would waste their strength in use-
less collisions with each other, would be a reflection upon
their discernment and their character which they can never
merit."

The answer of the assembly was indecorously severe
and bitter against the governor, and against the war. It,
nevertheless, passed in that body by a vote of fifty-five to
forty-one.

The senate passed a bill, in pursuance of the recommen-
dation of the governor, for the assumption by the state of
its quota of the direct tax; but the bill w^as, on motion of
Mr. Hyde, rejected in the assembly, fifty-five members
voting in the affirmative, on that motion. The bill, when
it was received from tlie senate, was referred to a select
committee, who in their report, stated sundry objections
to its passage, and concluded by saying, " Judging of the
future by the past, your committee beg leave to express
their firm conviction, that instead of wasting the resources
of the state by granting them to the general government,
it is the solemn and imperious duty of the legislature, to

OF NEW-YORK. 371

seek the reimbursement of the expenses ah-eady incurred
by this state on account of the war."

On the 31st January, Mr. Van Buren brought into the
senate a bill for the repeal of the restraining law, and, on
the same day, Mr. John B. Coles, a federal member,
brought a like bill into the assembly, showing on this, as
on all other occasions, that the questions relating to banks
and banking privileges, were not of a political nature, ex-
cept when artificially made so by those interested in banks;
and that they are merely questions between the holders of
exclusive franchises, and the community. The bill failed
of becoming a law.

It will readily be imagined that, during this session,
frequent collisions occurred between the two houses.
The views of the federalists and republicans, on all ques-
tions of legislation which related to the prosecution of the
war, (and there were several such,) were so adverse, that
hardly any measures were proposed by the one which
were not resisted, or attempted to be modified, by the
other. This led to frequent conferences. In these con-
ferences the views of the assembly were generally sus-
tained by the splendid talents of David B. Ogden, Samuel
Jones, Jun., Charles King, and Jacob Rutsen Van Rensse-
laer, while the management of conferences, on the part of
the senate, was commonly entrusted to Martin Vo.n Buren,
Erastus Root and Nalhan Sanford. Mr. Sanford seldom
took much part in the discussion; the battle, on the part
of the senate, was commonly fought by Gen. Root and
Mr. Van Buren.

The former had been long trained in the business of
legislation. Though a little uncouth in his manner, and
rough, and, I fear, sometimes rude in his expressions, his
wit was keen, and his sarcasms severe and biting. He
seized with great force and effect upon the prominent
points, and especially those points most likelv to make an

372 POLITICAL IIISTOIIY

impression on the popular ear, and pressed them with a
power almost irresistible. His illustrations were exceed-
ingly clear and well chosen, and his attacks upon his op-
ponents were severe almost to ferocity. From the year
1798, down to that period, he had been almost continually
a member either of the state or national legislature; and
possessing, as he did, a most retentive memory, he was
perfectly at home on all matters relating to the history of
the action of both governments, and the operations of both
the great political parties. He had much parliamentary
tact, and although, as I have remarked, he was uncouth
in his manner, and reckless in his expressions, he was a
man of correct literary taste, and, though irregular in his
habits, of highly cultivated intellect. " He was a scholar,
and a good and ripe one." Mr. Van Burcn, on the other
hand, was clear and logical in his reasoning, though
sometimes sophistical, and his manner and matter was deco-
rous towards his opponents. No man knew better than
he, how to avail himself most effectually of any defect in
the arguments of his opponents. His biographer, Mr.
' Holland, {Vmi Buren's Life. p. 103,) when speaking of
the part which Mr. Van Buren took in these discussions,
says, " In these conferences the measures in dispute were
publicly discussed, and the discussion embraced the gene-
ral policy of the administration and the expediency of the
war. The exciting nature of the questions thus debated,
the solemnity of the occasion, the discussions being con-
ducted in the presence of the two houses, and the brilliant
talents of the parties to the controversy, drew vast audi-
ences, and presented a field for the display of eloquence,
unsurpassed, in dignity and interest, by the assemblies of
ancient Greece. Mr. Van Buren was always the leading
speaker on the part of the senate; and by the vigor of his
logic, his acuteness and dexterity in debate, and the patri-
otic spirit of his sentiments, commanded great applause."

OF KEW-YORK. 373

Although this biography was written, it is presumed, with
a view to produce effect at a presidential election, when
Mr. Van Buren was a candidate, I consider the author's
statement, in the above extract, as literally correct; and,
therefore, I do not hesitate to copy it into a work, which,
whatever may be its other defects, I hope, will not smack
of political or personal partiality.

During this session a law was passed granting to Union
College the very liberal sum of two hundred thousand
dollars, in addition to former grants. This sum was to be
raised by lotteries. It was urged that this mode of raising
money was immoral, but probably those whose conscien-
ces were the most tender on that subject would have voted
against a grant, or at any rate, so large a grant of money
to Union College, if the money had been raised by any
other means. At that time, lotteries were tolerated, and
would have been granted, if not for that, for some other
purposes. The same bill also provided for small dona-
tions to Columbia College, to Hamilton College, to an
African Church, to the Historical Society, to the College
of Physicians and Surgeons of the western district, and to
the Medical College of New-York. The donations to so
many institutions, in various parts of the state, probably
was the means of forming an interest which secured the
passage of the bill. The Rev. Dr. Nott, the president of
Union College, was, I have no doubt, the individual who
devised this grand scheme for the liberal and permanent
endowment of the institution over which he presided.
Certainly it is owing to his indefatigable exertions, and
matchless skill and address, that a majority in favor of the
bill was obtained in both houses. His ingenuity in ex-
plaining away and warding off objections; his skill in
combining different and apparently conflicting interests;
and, abovt all, his profound knowledge of the human
heart, and that discernment which enabled him, as it were,-

374 POLITICAL HISTORY

intuitively to discover the peculiar propensity and character
of the mind of each individual whom he addressed, to-
gether with his tact in adopting that mode of address best
suited to each, rendered him almost irresistible, and, I be-
lieve, ultimately secured the success of the great measure
which he advocated.

The law for the better establishment of common
schools, was re-modelled and improved by a new bill
drawn by Mr. Hawley, which passed both houses on the
15th April. By this law, most of the provisions contain-
ed in the statute of 1812 were re-enacted; but they were
arranged in better order, and some new regulations were
introduced, the most important of which, was, that the
tr. stees of a school district, by consent of a majority of
the legal voters in such district, might exonerate all such
poor persons from paying for the tuition of their children,
as they should deem proper, and collect the sum, so re-
mitted, from those inhabitants whom they adjudged able
to pay school taxes.

It is gratifying to perceive that the members of this le-
gislature, although so nearly equally divided into two
parties, and so highly excited on political questions, cor-
dially united to advance the cause of science and popular
education.

There were, during this session, applications by sixteen
associations, for bank charters. The times afforded a fine
harvest for bankers. They could issue their own notes
as money, without being compelled to pay them. Such
was the peculiar attitude of the national administration,
in relation to the New-England states, and such was the
financial condition of the country, that the suspension of
specie payments by the bankers was considered an evi-
dence of patriotism. What banker would not be a pa-
triot, if he could lend his notes as cash, and, by a refusal
to pay them, acquire the character of one ? Some of

OF NEW-YORK. 375

these applications were successful in the assembly, but all
failed in the senate. At the very time when so great a
rage for bank charters prevailed, and found so much favor
in the assembly, Mr. Cole's bill, authorizing any associa-
tion to bank under certain restrictions, was rejected, in
that house, by the strong vote of sixty-six to twenty-four.
Another proof that the real question to be decided, on an
application for the incorporation of a bank, is between the
monopolizers and those who desire to become such.

On the 5th of February a meeting of a few citizens,
claiming to be Clintonians, but really the personal friends
of Solomon Southwick, was held in Albany, of which
Sebastian Visscher was chairman, and Samuel A. Foote
was secretary; at which Mr. Southwick was nominated a
candidate for the senate from the eastern district.

Mr. Southwick, notwithstanding his immense receipts
as state printer, and what he was supposed to have received
for acting as agent for the Bank of America,* was now
pretty well known to be greatly insolvent. As a politi-
cian, he was also bankrupt. A few only of old election-
eering hacks, broken down men in fame and fortune, of
the democratic party, adhered to him. Mr. Foote was, it
is true, a promising young man; but he was, at that time,
scarcely twenty-one years old. He had had no political
experience, nor did he then know the estimation in which
Mr. Southwick was generally held, otherwise, it is pre-
sumed, he would not have appeared as an officer of that
meeting. The federalists held a majority, as they believed,
in the eastern district, and they, of course, did not wish to
be troubled with Mr. Southwick.

To guard against the consequence, and make up for the
loss of the few republicans who might vote for Southwick,

* About this, there is much doubt. Mr. S. aUeged, that instead of receiving
money from that institution, he had lost by it, because he had paid from his own
pocket large sums m piocuring the charter, which the bank had refused to reim-
burse

376 POLITICAL HISTOR-i

the republican party, in the district, nominated Guen Van
Schoonhoven, a gentleman who had always belonged to
the federal party, but who gave some indications of a dis-
position to support the war.

In the sequel, it appeared that Mr. Van Schoonhoven
received more federal Ihan Mr. Southwick did republican
votes; for, of the two senators then to be elected from the
easteifi district, Mr. Geo. Tibbits, one of the regular fede-
ral candidates, was elected, while Mr. Southwick was
beaten by Mr. Van Schoonhoven.

The election in April terminated almost universally, in
this state, in favor of the republican party. The city of
New-York elected republican members of the assembly,
and several other counties changed from federal to demo-
cratic, so that there was a considerable democratic major-
ity in that branch of the legislature. The change in the
election of members of congress was equally great, twenty
of the members elect being republican.

The senators chosen at this election, were Darius Crosby
from the southern district, Moses I. Cantine and William
Ross from the middle, George Tibbits and Guert Van
Schoonhoven from the eastern, and Philetus Swift, Cliaun-
cey Loomis, Bennet Bicknell and John I. Pendergast from
the western; all of them republicans, except Mr. Tibbits.

OF MiW-VOllK.

377

CHAPTER XX.

FROM MAY 1, ISU, TO MAY 1, 1816.

In the month of August, a small squadron of British
vessels of war, containing some land forces, sailed up the
Chesapeake and effected a landing of their troops, who
marched into the interior with a view of capturing the
city of Washington. Some slight resistance was made
at Bladensburgh, within about five miles of the capitol,but
the attack was not anticipated, no regular troops were in
the neighborhood, and a few regiments of raw militia,
suddenly collected from the District of Columbia and its
vicinity, constituted mainly the American force, which
was soon put to flight. The British troops after this skir-
mish, marched into the city of Washington, destroyed
some of the public stores at the navy yard, set fire to the
president's house, and blew up the capitol. The next
morning, however, they retreated, and with all convenient
dispatch the troops were re-embarked. This outrage
produced considerable feeling even in the minds of
the federalists. Meetings of all parties were held in
New-York, and in several other places in the state, at
which resolutions were adopted to support the govern-
ment in repelling invasion, and indicating that there ought
to be a suspension of all mere party controversies until
the foreign enemy should be driven from our borders.

The citizens of the city of New- York, greatly alarmed
for the safety of that city, organized themselves into mili-
tary corps and volunteered to attend at regular hours for
the purpose of drilling.

Mr. Clinton as mayor, by his public addresses and by his
influence with the city corporation, did much to keep aliv«

378 POLITICAL HISTORY

a spirit of patriotism, and to aid the national government
with funds to sustain its sinking credit.

Money was required. The banks would not loan their
bills without better security than the stock or treasury
notes of the United States. It was, however, understood
that if treasury notes were deposited, endorsed by Gov.
Tompkins, they would advance some four or five hundred
thousand dollars to be expended in erecting fortifications
for the defence of the port of New-York. Mr. Rufus
King, on being informed of this, called upon the governor
and stated to him that the time had arrived when it was
the duty of every man to put his all at the requisition of
the government and that he himself was ready to do this.
Mr. Tompkins replied, he should be obliged to act on his
own responsibility and should be ruined. " Then," said
Mr. King, " ruin yourself if it becomes necessary to save
the country, and I pledge you my honor that I will sup-
port you in whatever you do." These sentiments are the
more honorable to Mr. King, when we consider that he
was then the prominent leader of the opponents of Mr.
Madison.

Gov. Tompkins endorsed the notes and the money was
advanced by the banks.*

Upon the capture of Washington, Gen. Armstrong re-
signed his office as secretary of war.

The citizens of the district of Columbia were clamor-
ous against Gen. Armstrong, and charged the disgrace and
injury they had received from the invasion of the British,
to his mismanagement and neglect. I am utterly incom-
petent to criticise the conduct of military men, and if this
were not so, it does not come within the scope of these
sketches, to attempt such criticism. I will merely state
that Gen. Armstrong and the few friends Avho adhered to
him, took quite a different view of his conduct. I re-

» See correspondence between Tompkins and Mclntyre.

OF NEW-YORK. 379

mark further, that Mr. Monroe was then secretary of state,
and a rival candidate with Armstrong for the presidencyj
that as I have before observed. Gov. Tompkins was also
a candidate for the same station, and that it was most
clearly the interest, first of Mr. Madison, to fix on some
scape goat, on whose shoulders to saddle this disgracej
secondly, of Mr. Monroe to cast from ihe cabinet a man
whose pretensions were directly at war with his own, and
thirdly, of Gov. Tompkins to get rid of a formidable
rival from his own state. What effect the combined ac-
tion of these men might have upon their own political
friends, (for Gen. Armstrong, before this disaster happen-
ed, was sufficiently odious to the federalists,) may readily
be imagined. Gen. Armstrong did not make the least
effort to avert the fate that seemed to await him. He re-
tired in sullen silence from the administration to his resi-
dence at Red Hook, and has never since intermeddled with
state or national politics, except by occasional confidential
communications to his old and constant friend Judge
Spencer, and one or two others.

It is rumored that he has employed himself in writing
the history of the late war. If that rumor is true, and
should his work be published, it will be read with great
avidity. That his means of accurately knowing what
actually took place during the war, are equal if not supe-
rior to any other person; that he possesses a mighty intel-
lect, all will admit; and if his history shall not be too
much tinged with a gloomy, jealous and vindictive spirit,
it will beyond question be invaluable.*

In consequence of the exposed condition of the coun-
try, and the danger of invasion at several points by the
enemy, the governor, by proclamation, convened an extra
session of the legislature. They met on the 26th Septem-
ber, and Samuel Young, of whom I shall have often occa-

• I have since learned this work had been published when the above was written.

380

POLITICAL HISTORY

sion hereafter to speak, was chosen speaker of the assem-
bly, and Aaron Clark, clerk.

The speech of the governor related almost exclusively
to the war and the suggestion of measures for its vigorous
prosecution. The speech was cordially approved by both
branches of the legislature.

The republican majority in the two houses did not re-
main idle a single moment. They did not content themselves
with words, but had recourse to the most vigorous action to
put the state in an attitude of defence against the enemy,
and to aid the war measures of the general government.

They first passsed an act to raise the pay of the militia,
while in the service of the United States, over the com-
pensation allowed by the general government, so that a
subaltern should receive fifteen dollars per month, a musi-
cian or corporal fourteen dollars, and a private thirteen dol-
lars per month. This provision extended as well to those
who had served since March 13, 1814, as those who
should be called into service. The payment was to be
made from the state treasury.

They next passed an act to encourage privateering, by
lauthorising associations for that purpose. The passage
of this act was resisted by the federalists in the legislature,
and by the federal members of the council of revision.

Chancellor Kent interposed a series of objections in the
form of a protest evincing great learning and ability,
against the act, as inconsistent with the genius of our con-
stitution, and at war with the principles of civilization
and the spirit of the age. But a majority of the council ap-
proved and passed the bill. The publication of this pro-
test called out Col. Young, the speaker of the assembly,
who in several numbers, published in the Albany Argus,
under the signature of Juris Consultus, defended with great
talent and ingenuity, the proceedings of the legislature.
The ability displayed in these essays, first made Mr. Young

OF NEW-YORK. 381

known to the state as a man of distinguished talents.
They were answered by the chancellor, and the contro-
versy was afterwards pursued by Mr. Van Buren, who
wrote under the signature of Amicus Juris Consultus. The
dissertations elicited by this controversy, both from Chan-
cellor Kent Col. Young, and Mr. Van Buren, are well
worthy of preservation, as splendid displays of learning
and talent, and as elegant specimens of correct logical
reasoning.

The same legislature, within a few days after the pas-
sage of the last mentioned law, passed a bill to authorise
the raising of troops for the defence of the state, com-
monly called the classification law. By this act twelve
thousand men were to be enlisted by the authority of the
state, for the term of two years. For the purpose of en-
suring the raising of that number of men, the militia were
to be classed, and each class was to furnish its man. If
a volunteer from the class could not be obtained, then an
assessment was to be made upon the members of the class
in proportion to the property held by each. This bill be-
came a law on the 24th October.

On the same day a law was passed for raising a corps of
sea fencibles for three years, consisting of twenty compa-
nies for the defence of the port of New-York. This
corps were to be ready at a moment's warning to be called
into actual service, in lieu of the militia. A law, also
was passed for raising two regiments of colored men for
three years, among whom slaves might be enlisted by con-
sent of their masters, who were to be manumitted on
being honorably discharged. Thus it seems that that un-
fortunate class of men were not deemed unworthy of
shedding their blood in defence of a country and a people
which had degraded and oppessed them. Could it have
been anticipated that Col. Young, who ably and zealously
advocated this bill, would have been found in the conven-

382 POLITICAL HISTORY

tion of 1821, supporting, and probably by his influence,
procuring to be inserted in the amended constitution, a
clause which was intended forever further to degrade this
down trodden race of men, to w^hose aid he now, in this
time of imminent peril, resorted 1*

Other laws were passed during this short session for re-
imbursing Gov. Tompkins for expenditures which he had
incurred, not at the time authorised by existing laws, and
for indemnifying him for the responsibilities he had as-
sumed, for appropriating fifty thousand dollars for the
completion of the fortifications on Staten Island, to amend
and render less easy of evasion, the act organizing the
militia, also to prevent the arrest on civil process of mili-
tia men while in the public service, and to prevent all im-
proper traffic or intercourse with the enemy.

These laws were most of them opposed by the federal
members of the legislature, because in some respects they
were alleged to infringe too much on the private rights of
the citizen, and because it was the duty of the national
government and the main object of its organization, to
provide for the defence of the country, and every part of
it against a foreign enemy. But the truth was, the gene-
ral government, by means of its financial embarrass-
ments, and other causes, had become, in a great mea-
sure, powerless, and if the country was to be defended
from the common enemy, it was apparent that defence
must be made principally by the states as such.

The national government by means of its patronage is
strong, perhaps too strong in time of peace; in war, if the
states choose to claim their reserved power, as the eastern
states then did, it is weak and inefl5cient.

The prompt adoption of these war measures by the le-
gislature, I thought then and I still think, was honorable
to the majority in the two houses. Among the most effi-
cient supporters of the measures in the senate, were Van
* See Note A. vol. 2, p. 640.

OF NEW-YORK, 383

Buren and Root; and in the assembly, the talents, zeal and
imperturbable firmness of Mr. Speaker Young, were pow-
erful means of procuring their adoption in that body.

The legislature, before their adjournment, which took
place about the 25th October, passed a law removing
Solomon Southwick from the office of state printer, and
appointing Jesse Buel in his place.

A convention chosen by the legislature of some of the
eastern states, known as the famous Hartford Convention,
was about this time projected. In this measure the state of
Massachusetts took the lead. The legislature of that state
was in session during the autumn of this year, and Gov.
Strong had, in his message, delivered a violent philippic
against the war and the management of it. This messsge
was referred in the senate to a committee, of which Harri-
son Gray Otis was chairman. He made a long report, in
which he animadverted with great severity on the mea-
sures pursued by the general government, and concluded
as follows : —

" It is therefore, with great concern, that your commit-
tee are obliged to declare their conviction, that the consti-
tution of the United States under the administration of
the persons in power, has failed to secure to this common-
wealth, and as they believe, to the eastern section of the
Union, those equal rights and benefits, which were the ob-
jects of its formation, and which they cannot relinquish
without ruin to themselves and posterity. These griev-
ances justify and require vigorous, persevering and peace-
able exertions, to unite those who realize the sufferings
and foresee the dangers of the country, in some system of
measures to obtain relief, for which the ordinary mode
of procuring amendments to the constitution affords no
reasonable expectation, in season to prevent the comple-
tion of its ruin. The people, however, possess the means
of certain redress; and when their safety which is the

384 POLITICAB inSTORY

supreme law, is in question^ these means slioukl be prompt-
ly applied. The framers of the constitution made provi-
sions to amend defects which were known to be incident
to every human institution- and the provision itself was not
less liable to be found defective upon experiment, than other
parts of the instrument. When this deficiency becomes ap-
parent, no reason can preclude the right of the whole peo-
ple, who were parties to it, to adopt another; and it is not a
presumptuous expectation, that a spirit of equity and jus-
tice enlightened by experience, would enable them to re-
concile conflicting interests,and obviate the principal causes
of those dissentions, which unfit government for a state of
peace and war, and so amend the constitution, as to give
vigor and duration to the union of the states. But as a
proposition for such a convention from a single state,
would probably be unsccessful, and our danger admits not
of delay, it is recommended by the committee, that in the
first instance, a conference should be invited between those
states, the aflBnity of whose interests is closest, and whose
habits of intercourse, from their local situation and oth-
er causes, are most frequent; to the end that by a com-
parison of their sentiments and views, some mode of de-
fence, suited to the circumstances and exigencies of those
states, and measures for accelerating the return of public
prosperity, may be devised; and also to enable the de-
legates from those states, should they deem it expedient,
to lay the foundation for a radical reform in the national
compact, by inviting to a future convention, a deputation
from all the states in the union. They, therefore, report
the following resolves — which are submitted.

H. G. OTIS, per order.

Resolved, That the calamities of war being now brought

home to this territory of the commonwealth; a portion of

it being in the occupation of the enemy, our sea coast and

rivers being invaded in several places, and in all exposed

OF NEW-YORK. 385

lo immediate dangerj the people of Massachusetts are im-
pelled by the duty of self-defence, and by all the feelings
and attachments which bind good citizens to their coun-
try, to unite in the most vigorous measures for defending
the state and expelling the invader, and no party feelings
or political dissentions can ever interfere with the dis-
charge of this exalted duty.

Resolvedj That provision be made by law for raising
by voluntary enlistment, for twelve months, or during the
war, a number of troops not exceeding ten thousand, to
be organized and officered by the governor, for the defence
of the state.

Resolved, That the governor be authorized to accept
the services of any volunteers, and to organize them as
part of the aforesaid troops, who shall hold themselves in
readiness to march at a moment's warning, to any part of
the commonwealth, who shall be entitled to full pay and
rations, when in actual service, and to a just compensation
short of full pay, to be provided by law, during the
entire term of their enlistment.

Resolved, That the governor be authorised to borrow,
from time to time, a sum not exceeding one million of dol-
lars, at an interest not exceeding six per centj and that
the faith of this government be pledged to provide funds
at the next session of this legislature at furthest, for the
payment of the interest on the sums borrowed.

Resolved, That persons be appointed as delegates from

the legislature, to meet and confer with delegates from the

states of New-England or any of them, upon the subjects

of their public grievances and concerns, and upon the best

means of preserving our resources, and of defence against

the enemy, and to devise and suggest for adoption by

those respective states, such measures as they may deem

expedient: and also to take measures, if they shall think

proper, for procuring a convention of all the United

25

386 POLITICAL HISTORY

States, in order to revise the constitution thereof, and more
effectually to secure the support and attachment of all the
people, by placing all upon the basis of fair representa-
tion.

Resolved, That a circular letter from this legislature,
signed by the president of the senate, and the speaker of
the house of representatives, be addressed to the execu-
tive government of each of said states, to be communica-
ted to their legislatures, explaining the objects of the pro-
posed conference, inviting them to concur in sending dele-
gates thereto.

This report was adopted on the 12th October, as ap-
pears by the following extract from the minutes kept by
the senate of Massachusetts: —

" IN SENATE— Ocif. 12, 1814."
" Important Report. — The report of the joint committee
on the public defence, was again debated; and was advo-
cated by the Hon. Messrs. Otis, Quincy, Blake, White,
and others; and opposed by the Hon. Messrs. Holmes,
Moody, Fuller, Kilham, and others — when it was accepted,
twenty-two to twelve. The blanks being filled up, the
number of delegates from this state is to be twelve, and
the convention is to meet in Hartford, the 15th December
ensuing."

These proceedings, on their face, were of a character
highly alarming. The state of Massachusetts had, before
this time, refused to put their militia, who, according to a
law of congress, were called into the service of the United
States, under the command, or in any respect under the
control, of officers appointed by the national government.
With this avowed determination, the state, it will be
perceived by the above resolutions, determine to raise aA-
army of twelve thousand men. They next resolve to
raise by loan, in addition to the ordinary revenue, a mil-
lion of dollars, which, of course, was to be expended un-

OF NEW-YORK. 387

der the direction of the state authorities; and they pro-
ceed further, to legalize, so far as the state could legalize,
a meeting of men unknown to either the state or national
constitutions, and to clothe them with political power.
They invite and earnestly urge the other disaffected states
to join them in this proposed congress. It is impossible
to view the project in any other light than as revolutionary
in its character. Two or three of the other New-England
states became parties to this plan of a convention, and
sent deputies to it. What the real object of this move
ment was, yet remains in doubt. The peace, which was
so soon after the meeting of the convention announced,
disconcerted and defeated the objects of the projectors,
"whatever those objects were. On the one hand, it was
contended, that the promoters of this convention had
nothing more in view, in any event, than to effect, if pos-
sible, a reform in the administration of the government,
and to extort from the administration a modicum of its
patronage; while, on the other, it has been affirmed that
the original intention was treasonable; that the New-
England states meant to secede from the union; negotiate
a separate peace with Great Britain; and form an inde-
pendent government, perhaps, in alliance with the British.
Might I be permitted to offer a conjecture, I should say,
that, to me, it is very probable that Massachusetts, and
the other New-England states, assumed this menacing at-
titude in the expectation of coercing the general adminis-
tration to concede to them a portion, if not the whole,
of the national patronage; but with a determination, in
case this hope should prove ill founded, that they would
secede from the union, " peaceably, if they could, forcibly,
if they must."

How far the federalists of the state of New-York ap-
proved these violent proceedings at the east, is not dis-

388 POLITICAL HISTORY

tinctly known. I myself, know, and could name, some
very distinguished federal politicians of this state, who
were decided in their opinions against the Hartford con-
vention* while there is reason to believe, that many others,
either secretly or openly, encouraged their eastern friends.
I observe, at that time, an article in the Albany Register,
condemning the measure; to which, an anonymous writer
in the Albany Gazette replied, justifying it. One thing
is very evident, that the federalists of New-York, as a
party, never sanctioned the Hartford Convention.

One movement of the federal members of the legisla-
ture, during the short extra session, deserves attention,
because it took place about the time, or rather a few days
before, the scheme of the Hartford Convention was devel-
oped by Mr. Otis, in the Massachusetts legislature. On
the 27th day of September a committee of the federal
members of the legislature issued the following circular,
which I have copied from Mr. William Colman's New-
York Evening Post, a leading federal paper, so much so,
that Mr. Colman was called Field Marshal Colman: —

" Albany, September 27, 1814.

" Sir — The legislature convened at this place yesterday,
and commenced their proceedings in the true Jacobinic
spirit of proscription. It is therefore evident, that concili-
ation is out of the question with our political opponents.
We understand that the majority in the two houses have
several violent and extensive projects in contemplation.
Hence, it is desirable, that the federalists, throughout the
state, should have a perfect understanding about the course
•which the party are to pursue. To effect this, it is pro-
posed to have a meeting of delegates from different coun-
ties, in this city, on the fifth day of October next, to con-
sult and decide on that subject.

• Abraham Vas '^'echter and Dakisl Gaoy.

OF NEW-YORK. 389

" Permit us to request you to confer with our friends in.
your county, and to make arrangements to send a delega-
tion to the proposed meeting.

Wc are, with great respect.

Your obedient servants,
James Emott, Henry Livingston,

Abr. Van Vechten, Theodore Sill,
Saml. M. Lockwood, J. R. Van Rensselaer

3»

Daniel Hale, William A. Duer,

George Tibbits, Samuel Stewart,

Peter Jay Munro, Gerrit Wendell,

Committee^

Why this state convention 1 No governor was to be
chosen for the space of nearly two years, and no election,
of any kind, was to be held for more than six months
thereafter. It is difficult to account for this call, without
supposing that one object of a state convention was, to
take into consideration the conduct of the eastern federal-
ists. I am not, however, aw^are that a convention was
held, in pursuance of the request of the legislative com-
mittee; at any rate, I am quite confident no such conven-
tion was publicly held. If I am correct in this, the fair
inference is, that the project of the Hartford Convention
■was not generally favorably received by the federalists of
New-York. [Kote C]

The intelligence of the laws passed by the New-York
legislature, in aid of the war and of the general govern-
ment, at the session in September and October, was re-
reived at Washington, by Mr. Madison and his cabinet,
with great joy, and the most intense gratification.

The extremely depressed condition of the national trea-
sury, had rendered the United States unable to recruit
their armies, which were daily diminishing by the expira-
tion of the terms of enlistment, deaths, and desertions.

390 POLITICAL HISTORY

The British government, now relieved from all its Euro-
pean enemies, would exert its whole tremendous power
against America single handed, and the determined and
powerful opposition of the eastern states to the govern-
ment, unquestionably added to the alarm of the adminis-
tration. New- York held a most important position.
Had she have joined her moral and political influence
with New-England, it does seem to me, the national go-
vernment must have come to a stand, and that this must
have been seen and felt by the cool and calculating Mr.
Madison. Under these painful apprehensions, the news
from New-York was particularly consoling and cheering.
I was going to say, it fell upon the ear of the cabinet like
a reprieve to a man condemned to die.

Gov. Tompkins was considered the individual, to whom,
above all others, the administration was most deeply in-
debted. Mr. Monroe was now acting secretary of war,
as well as secretary of state. Mr. Madison proposed to
Gov. Tompkins that Monroe should vacate the office of
secretary of state, and that he, (Mr. T.) should be placed
at the head of that department. Ever since the alteration
of the United States constitution, in the mode of choosing
the president and vice-president, the secretary of state
was considered heir apparent to the presidential chair,
and, at any rate, was the known and admitted favorite of
the president for the time being. This offer, then, Mr.
Tompkins considered, and considering established usages,
perhaps had a right to consider, as a commitment, on the
part of the administration, to support him for the next
president. Gov. Tompkins, however, declined accepting
the office, alleging as a reason, that he could render more
service to the nation as governor of New-York, than as
secretary of state of the United States. The popularity
and influence of Gov. Tompkins may be said now to have
been at its zenith. In New-York he was all but idolized

OF NEW-YORK. 391

by a formidable and well organized political party, who
held strong majorities in both branches of the legislature;
abroad he was esteemed and respected, and at Washington
the national cabinet had virtually declared him their can-
didate for the next national executive vacancy. He was,
in New-York, not only the dispenser of the state patron-
age, but, in the loose and irregular way of transacting
business between the state and national governments which
then prevailed, most of the treasury notes and other secu-
rities of the United States passed through the hands of the
governor, and payments, on the part of the state and na-
tion, were many times made through him, and occasionally
by him; so that he was also the dispenser of pecuniary
gratifications. He was auditor, receiver, and paymaster.
All good things, politically speaking, seemed to come
from the governor as their source.

Mr. Madison, in the latter part of this year, thought
proper to remove Gideon Granger from the office of post-
master general, and to supply his place by the appoint-
ment of R. J. Meigs, of Ohio. Mr. Granger had held the
office for twelve years, and had done much towards im-
proving and perfecting that important department; but
report states that some personal differences existed be-
tween Mr. Madison and Mr. Granger, while the former
was secretary of state, which were never forgotten by
him, and that he expelled Mr. G. from the post-office
ostensibly because he had been a Clintonian, but really on
account of an old grudge. The immediate cause of the
removal, was the appointment, by Granger, of Doct. Lieb
post-master of Philadelphia.

The new post-master general, shortly after his appoint-
ment, removed George W. Mancius from the office of
post-master at Albany, and appointed Peter P. Dox.
Mr. Mancius was an old Albanian, beloved by all, not-
withstanding he was nominally a federalist. His removal

392 POLITICAL HISTORY

produced a strong sensation unfavorable lo the post-mas-
ter general.

The legislature met on the 31st day of January, 1815,
and on the next day chose a council of appointment, con-
sisting of Jonathan Dayton from the southern, Lucas El-
mendorff from the middle, Ruggles Hubbard from the
eastern, and Farrand Stranahan from the western districts.
This council very promptly proceeded to remove all, or
nearly all, the federal incumbents from offices held subject
to the pleasure of the council.

Mr. Van Vechten was, of course, removed from the of-
fice of attorney general, and Mr. Van Buren was appointed
nis successor. This appointment was made by the casting
vote of the governor. Mr. ElmendorfF and Mr. Dayton
voted for Mr. Van Buren, and Messrs. Stranahan and
Hubbard for Mr. John Woodworth. The circumstance is
too trifling to deserve notice, except as an evidence of a
jealous feeling which then began to exist between Judge
Spencer and Mr. Van Buren. I do not impute the vote
of Hubbard to the influence of Judge Spencer. Mr. H.
was from Troy, and Judge Wooodworth had many and
powerful friends in that place, and in Mr. Hubbard's dis-
trict. This accounts well enough for the vote of Mr.
Hubbard. But Stranahan had no personal partialities nor
any influential friends, in his district, in favor of Wood-
worth; on the contrary, they were for Van Buren. The
truth is, Stranahan, at that period of his political life, was
much, if not entirely, devoted to the views of Judge
Spencer. I apprehend that Judge Spencer perceived that
Mr. Van Buren was acquiring a greater influence in the
state than the judge desired he should possess, and, there-
fore, persuaded Mr. Stranahan to endeavor to defeat his
appointment. From this period, down to 1817, when
Mr. Clinton was nominated for governor, Mr. Van Buren
and Judge Spencer, though both of them acting with the

OF NEW-VORK. 393

republican party, and in good faith too, were very much
inclined to thwart the individual views of each other.

On some of the first days in February, Nathan Sanford
was chosen senator of the United States, to fill the seat
rendered vacant by thp expiration of the term of service
of Gen. German. The moment Gen. Armstrong resigned
the war department it was given out, (and I believe the
giving out came from Judge Spencer,) that the ex-secreta-
ry must be elected to the United States senate. Mr.
Spencer was no doubt anxious for this result, but it was
soon found the current in the legislature against Arm-
strong was quite too strong to be arrested. Gov. Tomp-
kins, though extremely adroit in avoiding the taking any
part openly in the controversies which occurred among
his j^olitical friends, could not, on this occasion, remain
idle. Beyond all question, both he and Van Buren, must
have taken a very active part to put at rest, at all events,
the claims of Gen. Armstrong.*

On the 12th of February the news arrived in Albany
that a treaty of peace between Great Britain and the Uni
ted States, had been signed at Ghent, on the 24th day of
December. It is unnecessary to say that the intelligence of

* After it was found that Gen. Armstrong could not be elected, Judge Spencer
himself was announced as a candidate!; but the current in favor of Mr. Sanford,
which had been produced by Gov. Tompkins and Mr. Van Buren, could not be re-
sisted.

Previous to the assemblage of the caucus to nominate a senator, it was well
ascertained that a majority were in favor of Sanford. When the caucus convened
Mr. Van Buren stated that he did not believe Judge Spencer would consent to be
a candidate. This statement was probably made with a view to induce the
friends of the Judge to withdraw his name, Mr. V. B, believing that they must
have known there was a majority against him.

The friends of the Judge, however, insisted that he would serve as a senator, if
elected, and moved that a committee be appointed to call on him and request his
response to the question, whelhei he was, or was not, a candidate. This motion,
although opposed by Mr. Van Buren, was carried, and a committee raised accord-
ingly, who reported that the Judge declined to be a candidate, " because he would
not put himself in competition with so young a man as Mr. Sanford."

It is not improbable that the committee advised Judge Spencer of what tbey
believed would he the result of a contest between him and Sanl'ord.

394 POLITICAL HISTORY

this event produced the most lively sensations of joy,
among all classes in the community, excepting only those
contractors and office holders who were making great
gains by the war, and perhaps we ought to except, now
and then, a cold, calculating, selfish politician of the fede-
ral stamp, whose party zeal absorbed his love of country,
and who believed that the administration must have been
broken down had the war continued, and who felt that the
news of peace had destroyed all the prospects of the party
with which he was associated. It is, however, undoubt-
edly true, that a large majority of both parties most sin-
cerely rejoiced when the news of the great event arrived.

To add to the exultation and general joy, about this
time information was received of the splendid victory of
New-Orleans, obtained on the eighth of January, by the
American troops under the command of Gen. Jackson.

For more than a quarter of a century past, our states-
men and orators have boasted of our success in the late
war; and the heroism and bravery of our soldiers and sea-
men; the patriotism of our citizens; and the strength and
energy of our government, as demonstrated by that war.
The glory achieved by the nation, during this contest, has
been extolled at the hustings, eulogised in the halls of
legislation, and celebrated in song. This may be all right;
it is, in fact, right; for, in truth, great fortitude and spirit
was evinced, both by our seamen and soldiers, and very
decisive evidence was furnished of the attachment of the
great mass of the people to the government of their own
choice, and of their determination to support and defend
the liberty and independence of the nation. Still, the
honest and candid historian, acting with good faith towards
posterity, is bound to state, that at the time when peace
was announced in this country, it was in a condition alarm-
ingly perilous. The treasury was empty, and the credit
of the national government was quite exhausted. I will

OF NEW-VORK. 395

not say it could not command a dollar of real money, but
I will say it could not, with all its means and its power,
without the most ruinous sacrifice, get the control of a
million, or even half a million, of the only money known
to the constitution; which is gold and silver. The army
of the United States, though liberally supplied with offi-
cers, had not, at that time, in its ranks more than eight
thousand privates, enlisted for five years, or during the
war, and the government possessed no means of recruiting
its ranksj and, as I have said before, the whole naval and
military power of Great Britain was ready to be put in
requisition for the prostration of this country. To add to
all these difficulties, the cloud which for two years had
been gathering in the east, was now ready to burst. I
will, nevertheless, add, that I have not a shadow of doubt
that had the war continued, notwithstanding these difficul-
ties and embarrassments, the whole country, and all par-
ties in it, would have eventually roused and repelled the
invader. But the news of peace came, and with it all
danger vanished.

The 22nd of February, Washington's birth-day, was
designated as a day for rejoicing and festivity. I was in
Albany on that day and evening, and I could not but ob-
serve, that notwithstanding the prevalent hilarity, politi
cians were anxiously looking ahead for future advance
ment. Among the various pageantry exhibited, were
several transparencies, with inscriptions suited to the occa-
sion; but at the Eagle Tavern I noticed a splendid trans-
parency exhibiting in large capitals the names of Tomp-
kins and Crawford. The indication intended was most
obvious.

The war having thus happily terminated, the party in
power felt more at liberty to distribute the patronage in
such away as to gratify their own individual views. Ja-
cob Ruisen Van Rensselaer wasremoved from the office of

396 POLITICAL HlSTOR-i

secretary of state, and Gen. Peter B. Porter was appointed
in his place. Gen. Porter.had honorably distinguished him-
self in the army on the Niagara frontier during the war,
and was besides justly esteemed as a man of the first order
of intellect. It does not appear that he solicited the ap-
pointment. Indeed his business required his personal at-
tention at Black Rock, where he resided, and besides, he
was in the spring of 1814, elected to congress. He was,
I understand, proposed by Gov. Tompkins, and a majority
of the council of appointment without difficulty consent-
ed to his appointment. As Tompkins was a candidate for
the presidency, and knew that Gen. Porter would be an
influential member of the next congress, he probably felt
desirous to aflford him this evidence of his courtesy. Col.
Jenkins, the late secretary, who, it is presumed, was a
candidate possessing what is called claims, was the devo-
ted friend of Judge Spencer, who made no secret of his
opposition to the governor's pretensions to the presiden-
tial office. By proposing so respectable a name as Gen.
Porter's, Gov. Tompkins without an open controversy
with Spencer or Jenkins disposed of the claims of the lat-
ter, who was fain to acquiesce in the miserable scheme
to which Gov. Tompkins and the council consented, of re-
moving the venerable Philip Van Rensselaer, brother of
the Patroon, from the mayoralty of Albany, and of receiv-
ing the appointment in lieu of that of Secretary of State.
There was one question which somew*hat embarrassed
the council, and produced considerable public excitement;
and this was the appointment of a mayor of New-York.
De Witt Clinton was the incumbent. He had discharged
the duties of the office ably and faithfully. Whether pes-
tilence* or war prevailed, he was constantly at his post.
The Tammany party in New-York, which then really con-
stituted the republican party of that city pressed his re-

"» The yellow fever prevailed twice in Xew-Vork, while Mr. Clinton was mayor.

OF NEW-YORK. 397

moval. Judge Spencer was indefatigable in his exertions
to effect the same object, and of course Mr. Stranahan
was for it, and so was Mr. Dayton, who came from the
hotbed of Martlingism. Mr. Hubbard was- at the last
presidential election a zealous Clintonian, and went on a
mission to Vermont with a view to obtain the vote of that
state for his favorite candidate. He was still friendly to
Mr. Clinton, and desired his re-appointment. Mr. El-
mendorfF, if influenced by any individual, was probably
more guided by Mr. Van Buren than any other. Van
Buren did not desire to take an active part on either side of
this question, and Mr. Elmendorff, for that or some other
reason, for some time, hesitated about committing him-
self on the question.* Tompkins dreaded giving the
casting vote. He did not wish to offend the republican
friends of Mr. Clinton, and he dared not encounter the
resentment of the New-York Tammanies. For these rea-
sons the appointment of mayor of New-York was for a
considerable time delayed.

During the year 1814, a writer of considerable talents
had appeared in a New-York paper, assuming the name of
Ahiraoleck Coody, a mechanic of that place. The writer
was a federalist, and addressed himself principally to the
party to which he belonged. He endeavored to show the
impropriety of opposing the war, and urged them to come
forward manfully in defence of their country. He also,
as I am told, for I have not for many years seen his num-
bers, attacked De Witt Clinton with great severity. This
was a sure passport to the favors of St. Tammany. It
was soon ascertained that this writer was Mr. Gulian C,
Verplanck, a gentleman who has since distinguished him-
self for his talents and usefulness, both in the national
and state legislature. He also holds a high rank as a man
of respectable literary attainments. Abimaleck Coody

* I state this from report. It may be incorrect.

398 POLITICAL HISTORY

was answered by a writer under the signature of " A Tra-
veller," with great point and severity. This was said to
be the production of Mr. Clinton. He charges Mr. Ver-
planck's hostility to Clinton, as having growi;^ out of a
charge given by Mr. C. while mayor of New- York, on an
occasion when Verplanck was indicted for a riot in
Columbia College, and the " Traveller's" main object seems
to have been to ridicule Mr. Verplanck's claim to literary
merit; but towards the conclusion, he says that, "He"
(Coody, alias Verplanck,) " has become the head of a
political sect called the Coodies, of hybrid nature, com-
posed of the combined spawn of federalism and Jacobin-
ism, and generated in the venomous passions of disappoint-
ment and revenge, without any definite character; neither
fish nor flesh, nor bird nor beast, but a nondescript made
up of

" AH monstrous, all prodigions things."

Mr. Verplanck was joined by several others, few it is
true, in number, but highly respectable for talents and
standing, among whom were Judge Radcliff, who had been
appointed mayor by the federalists in 1810; and Mr.
Maxwell, since district attorney of New-York. This lit-
tle party were taken into very close communion by Judge
Spencer, and he was understood to be in favor of Judge
RadcliflF for mayor. It is not improbable that this good
understanding commenced when Peter W. Radcliff was
in the council of 1813. It really does seem that that lit-
tle association was, in a great degree, governed by hostili-
ty to De Witt Clinton, for there were scarcely enough of
them to occupy the places which would be rendered va-
cant by the expulsion of the Clintonian office holders in the
city; and it does not appear that they ever acted with
the republican p^rty from that time to the present, except
when it was necessary to do so in order personally to op-
pose De Witt Clinton. The result of the next election,

OF NEW-YORK. 399

(April, 1815,) proved that they made no Impression on the
federal party in New- York, for from being democratic in
1814, the city changed to federalism in 1815. The Goodies,
in common with all the other opponents of Mr. Clinton,
pressed his removal, and they insisted on the appointment
of Judge Radcliff. The Tammany society seemed to pre-
fer the appointment of their Grand Sachem, Mr. John Fer-
guson. In the end, Mr. Elmendorff was induced to give
up his scruples about removing Mr. Clinton; and an ar-
rangement was made, by which Mr. Ferguson was ap-
pointed mayor, under an understanding that he was soon
to be provided with an office by the general government,
(surveyor of the port,) when Mr. Radcliff was to receive
the office of mayor. Mr. Clinton was displaced, and the
above arrangement was fully carried into effect.*

The situation of Mr. Clinton was now deplorable, and
his prospects were painfully gloomy. To all appearance
his political expectations were entirely blasted. He was

* I cannot conclude my remarks on this council without mentioning one of their
acts which was peculiarly reprehensible. Mr. Ruggles Hubbard, who, it will be
recollected, was a senator from the eastern district, was a lawyer residing in Rens-
selaer county. He was irregular in his habits, lax in his moral principles, and im-
provident in his expenditures. This man, in preference to many other worthy and
respectable old citizens of New-York, was appointed sheriifof the city and coun-
ty of New-York. An office worth ten thousand dollars a year, which eminently
required a man intimately acquainted with the citizens and their circumstances,
and one not only responsible in a pecuniary point of view, but of correct busi-
ness habits, and punctilious in all his dealings, was given by the council to a
member of their own body, of irregular habits, insolvent in his circumstances,
and a stranger to the city. It was a mere exertion of arbitrary power, an insult
and outrage on the city of New-York, which ought to have disgraced the most
despotic tyrant in the eastern world. How the city of New- York could have been
Induced to submit peaceably to this most inexcusable act, is a miracle. That Mr
Hubbard was wholly unworthy of this office, even had he been a citizen of New-
York, appears from the ridiculous attempt, subsequently made by him to get pos-
session of Amelia Island, and his miserable death there.

It is due to Ruggles Hubbard to say, that although he was lax in his moral prin-
ciples and reckless in his habits, he was an exceedingly pleasant companionable
man, good natured and kind in his disposition, and humane and generous to a
fault. Ho left many worthy and respectable connexions in the part of the state
where he resided. His fellow members of the council deserve, I was going to say,
more of the maledictions of the public than ought to be bestowed upon him.

400 POLITICAL HISTORY

no longer in fellowsliip with the republican party. There
■was no reasonable ground to believe that the federalists
would regain an ascendency either in the state or nation,
and if they should, there was little probability that they
would betow on him any marks of distinction or favor.
From youth up he had devoted himself to politics, and
had never followed any business or profession. He had
a large family dependent on him for education and sup-
port, and although he was neither a speculator nor pro-
fuse in his expenses, by reason of responsibilities he had
improvidently assumed for others, and a want of system
in his domestic economy, he was insolvent for many thou-
sands of dollars. But he was a man of great firmness
and moral courage. He did not abandon himself to des-
pondency, nor did he yield to childish resentment. He
continued his social intercourse, and maintained his digni-
ty of deportment. He betook himself to literary pursuits,
and soon distinguished himself by his dissertations and
addresses, as a man of science and considerable literary
attainments; and he pursued with ardor his scheme of in-
ducing the state to open a communication by a canal be-
tween the great lakes and the tide waters of the Hudson.

Mr. Clinton was descended from the Irish. From that
and other circumstances, he was during his whole life, the
favorite of the great mass of Irish adopted citizens. Af-
ter his removal from the mayoralty, he was addressed by
Thomas Addis Emmett and Doct. McNivin, in behalf of
the Irish citizens in a manner creditable to them, and
honorable to him. "We prefer," say they, " the mo-
ment of your retreat from office, for the expression of
our deep sense of your manifold and important services to
the public."

Mr. Clinton's reply gives stronger evidence of intense
feelings than any of his productions.

OF NEW-YORK. 401

Little business of interest was transacted in the legis-
lature during the remaining part of this session.

Gerrit L. Dox was chosen treasurer in lieu of Mr. Piatt.

The result of the election in April was somewhat different
from that which was expected probably by either party.
The city of New-York elected federal members to the as-
sembly. Of the one hundred and twenty-six which com-
posed that house, according to the certificate of the re-
turning officers, sixty-three were federalists and sixty-
three republicans.

In the senate, Jacob Barker was elected from the south-
ern district; Peter R. Livingston and Isaac Ogden from the
middle, Abraham Van Vechten, David Allen, Henry I.
Frey and Ralph Hascal from the eastern; and Henry
Seymour and Stephen Bates from the western dictrict. All
the districts were democratic except the eastern.

S6

402 POLITICAL HISTORY

CHAPTER XXI.

FROM MAY 1, 1816, TO MAY 1, 1816.

The peace, as I have before in subsiance staled, entirely
prostrated the hopes of the federalist?, as a party; and I
am not aware that, either in this or any other state in the
union, saving a feeble effort made in the spring of 1816,
in New-York, to elect Mr. King for governor, they have
made any serious effort, under the name of federalists,
since the termination of the war.

The issue which was made between the republican and
federal parties, on the war question, was unfortunate, and,
on the part of the federalists, ill judged and impolitic. T
say ill judged and impolitic, because, I trust, all candid,
fair minded republicans will admit that the great mass of
the federalists were sincerely attached to the civil institu-
tions and independence of the country; that they honestly
believed the war was unadvisedly declare*! and badly con-
ducted; and that the administration of Mr. Madison was
weak and inefficient, and tended to produce, and was pro-
ducing, serious injuries to the nation. It seems to me
then, that after the constitutional authorities of the coun-
try had declared war, althoucn the federalists may have
supposed that war to have been injudiciously and prema-
turely declared, and even although they might have be-
lieved that by a proper course of negotiation, on the part
of the American government, it might have been avoided,
yet, inasmuch as a state of war with a powerful nation
actually existed, they ought by their influence, in and out
of the legislative halls, to have exerted themselves in fa-
vor of the vigorous prosecution of the war, and they
should have manifested their wish that the government

OF KEW-iORK. 403

might be furnished with the necessary means of men and
of money, to bring that war to a termination upon princi-
ples advantageous and honorable to the nation.

The conduct of the federalists was, in many respects,
the reverse of this. From the question, whether the war
was well or ill conducted by the government, or whether
it was prematurely declared, they allowed themselves to
be drawn into a controversy respecting the cause of the
war, and whether the American government were not
equally culpable with the British. In their zeal to con-
demn our own administration, they were led, first to apolo-
gize for, and finally to justify, the conduct of the common
enemy. As the federalists affirmed that the war was pre-
maturely declared, and that the administration was incom-
petent to conduct it, any ill success in prosecuting it they
seemed to suppose, would be proof of the truth of their
allegations. Hence, sometimes the federal press exulted,
or rather manifested symptoms of gratification at the
news of a defeat of the American troops. At the public
meetings of the federalists, and indeed in their social in-
tercourse, on like occasions, they gave similar indications.
The true cause of such exultation and joy was, not that
the British arms were successful, but that the administra-
tion, by means of the disaster, was disgraced. But the
opponents of the federalists were able to produce an im
pression among the people that it was not the hostility of
the federalists to the administration, but their partiality tc
a foreign government, which induced them to apologize
for, and sometimes justify, the British. The conduct of
over zealous federalists tended to give color and sustain
the allegations of their opponents.

It has always seemed to me, that if the federalists had,
in good faith, supported war measures, and confined their
opposition to the reckless expenditure of the public mo-
ney, and the manner in which the war was conducted,

404 POLITICAL HISTORY

they would have carried the hearts of a majority of the
American people with them, and broken down the admin-
istration.

It cannot fail to be unfortunate for parties, in a repub-
lic, to be founded on a difference of opinion as regards
the merits or demerits of a foreign power; and the fate of
the federalists, as a party, which seems to have been in-
duced by appearing to take the side of a foreign govern-
ment, will, in that respect, it is hoped, have a salutary ef-
fect on all parties hereafter. And it is worthy of remark,
that although, since the peace with England, our govern-
ment has had serious difficulties with other nations, and
we have constantly had highly excited parties in our
midst, no party has taken the side of any of the foreign
governments with whom we have differed. Indeed, I
have sometimes apprehended, that our party leaders are
too much afraid of the charge of foreign influence or for-
eign partialities.

The American government may err in its treatment of
another government, and when you become sensible that
it does so it is your right as a freeman, and you are bound
as an honest man, to condemn the course pursued by your
own government; not with a view to aid a foreign power,
but for the purpose of reforming your own government.
The federalists being in this hopeless condition, as a
party, felt very indifferent about the presidential candi-
dates. It is, however, natural to suppose, that they hoped
the republican party would divide on that question. The
president had then been taken from the state of Virginia
for twenty-four out of the twenty-eight years during
which the United States government had existed. This
apparent partiality for the citizens of that state, had been
long severely denounced by the federalists of the northern
and middle states, an'l it had recently been harped upon
by tne papers, claiming lo be republican, which supported

OF NEW-YORK. 405

Mr. Clinton. It was now the interest of Gov. Tompkins,
and other competitors with Mr. Monroe for the presidencVj
to countenance and give effect, among the republicans, to
the prejudices which had been excited against what was
called the Virginia dynasty. Judge Spencer and Gen.
Armstrong were in favor of Mr. Crawford, but the great
mass of the republican party in the state were for Gov.
Tompkins.

Immediately after the peace was concluded, Mr. Madi-
son began to give tokens that Mr. Monroe was to be the
executive candidate. Whether an understanding existed
at the time of the election of Mr. Madison, that Mr. Mon-
roe, who at first exhibited some symptoms of oppugnation,
should be his successor, or whether he was operated upon
by the pressure of his Virginia friends; or from personal
friendship, and from an opinion that Mr. Monroe was
really the fittest and most suitable man, or, whatever the
cause may have been, it is certain that when danger from
a foreign enemy and domestic disturbance disappeared,
Mr. Madison, contrary to his intentions when he tendered
to Mr. Tompkins the office of secretary of state, did aban-
don his claims, and sustain those of Mr. Monroe.

As soon as it was known in New-York that Mr. Mon-
roe was the executive candidate for the succession, a small
party was got up who favored his pretensions, and among
them were men who had been the confidential friends of
Gov. Tompkins, and had participated largely in the boun-
ties he had distributed.

There are good reasons to believe that the national ad-
ministration, under the control of the Virginia dynasty,
had, for a long time, entertained some jealousy of the
leading and most influential republicans in the state of
New-York. The great and rapidly increasing numerical
weight of this state might have increased that jealousy.
Hence, the policy at Washington was to prevent any one

406 POLITICAL HISTORY

man from getting, or rather from retaining, an ascendancy
with the republican party in the state. Hence, we hnd
that the minor section of that party were always the spe-
cial favorites of the administration, from the time of the
existence of the Burr faction down to the period of which
I am writing. Accordingly, William P. Van Ness, the
second of Burr in the duel with Hamilton, the avowed
author of Aristides, and the uncompromising enemy of
De Witt Clinton, was made a judge of the United States
court. Hence, also, the early attacks upon that gentle-
man, in the Richmond Enquirer, and, in 1808, when Mr.
Clinton was supporting the embargo and other measures
of the general government, in the senate of New-York,
the attacks upon him by the Washington Monitor, a paper
edited by Mr. Colvin, a clerk in the office of Mr. Madison,
and other republican papers directly under his control;
and hence, the Martling men and Lewisites in New- York,
after they denounced Mr. Clinton, and while they were,
as respected the great republican party in the state, liter-
ally a faction, were the peculiar favorites of the adminis-
tration, and the special objects of its bounty. This policy
of the general government had been sanctioned and se-
cretly encouraged by governor Tompkins, but it was now
his turn to encounter the same policy exerted towards
himself.

In illustration of this remark it is my duty to state, that
Solomon Southwick, who had for years abused the national
administration and the Virginia dynasty; who had boiste-
rously opposed, in 1812, the election of Mr. Madison;
and who had most bitterly attacked Gov. Tompkins, Judge
Spencer, and other distinguished republicans of New-
York, was now a successful applicant for an appointment
by the general government.

It is true, that after the news of peace, in the winter of
1815, he came out, in the Albany Register, in favor of the

OF NEW-YORK. 407

republican party, and of the conduct of Mr. Tompkins, as
governor; but those who recollected his severe and con-
tinued animadversions in that paper, for three years prece-
dmg, found it extremely difficult to accord implicit credit
to his sincerity.

The office of post-master, at Albany, had become va-
cant by the death of Peter P. Dox, in the fall of 1815,
and Mr. Southwick was an applicant for that appointment.
It is true he was recommended by a respectable meeting,
principally of republicans, in Albany, at which George
Merchant -was chairman, and Charles E. Dudley secretary;
but it was well understood that the meeting was got up
principally through the influence of the creditors of Mr.
Southwick, in the hope, if he should be appointed to a
lucrative office, that peradventure they might realize a
portion, or the whole, of the debts he owed them.

Mr. Southwick was in favor of Mr. Monroe for presi-
dent, and he was eventually appointed post-master at Al-
bany.

At this time the selection of the presidential candidate
was made by a caucus of republican members of congress.
This was then the common law of the democratic party.
The fourteenth congress convened on the first Monday in
December. As I happened to be a member of that con-
gress I can speak with some confidence in relation to the
manoeuvrings which occurred, prior to the congressional
caucus. When the members from this state arrived in
Washington, it was found that nearly, if not quite, all the
republicans, (and they were the only persons who claimed
the right to interfere in the selection of a presidential can-
didate,) were for Gov. Tompkins, if it should be found
that there was a reasonable prospect of procuring his
nomination; but it was soon ascertained that it could not
be effected. The New-England states were all represented
by federalists, with the exception of three republican

408 POLITICAL HISTORY

members from that part of Massachusetts which now con-
stitutes the state of Maine. The majority of the republi-
can members were from the south, and these were all op-
posed to the nomination of Tompkins. Their ostensible
objection was, that he had never been in the service of the
nation, and therefore, their constituents knew little or
nothing of him. It was in vain that we urged his merits
as governor of New-York, during the late war.* " I have
jio doubt," said a member from North Carolina to me,
*' that Mr. Tompkins is a good governor. We, also, have
a good governor in North Carolina, but we do not, on that
account, expect you to support him for the office of presi-
dent." It was difficult to answer this objection, although
the only reason why Gov. Tompkins had not been in the
service of the nation, was his refusal to accept the office
of secretary of state, solely for the reason that he could
render more service to the nation as governor than he
could as secretary of state.

I regret to say, that those who manifested an inclination
to support, in caucus, Gov. Tompkins, may be designated
by geographical lines. His friends were to be found in
New-York, New-Jersey, some in Pennsylvania, some in
Kentucky, some in Ohio, and some in Maryland; but not
a single supporter of Tompkins could be found south of
the Potomac. What was, what is, notwithstanding what
has lately taken place, the inference to be drawn, by the
northern aspirants to the national executive chair, from
this fact 1 Of those republican members from Massachu-
setts, two were for Mr. Monroe, and one, (Col. Conner, a
talented and enterprising man, who, although elected from
Maine, was an actual resident of Albany, he having mar-
ried the daughter of Isaac Denniston, Esq.,) was for
Tompkins. It soon became evident that Tompkins could
not be nominated; but, before this was ascertained, at any
rate by those of us who were strangers, a meeting was held

* Mr. Lewis Williams.

OF NEW-YORK. 409

by the New-York delegation, to ascertain each others'
views and to endeavor to agree on ulterior measures.

My object, and, I believe, the object of a majority of
the delegates, was, in case we should become satisfied that
the project of nominating Gov. Tompkins was hopeless,
then to endeavor to procure as nearly an united vote of
the state as possible, for William H. Crawford, at that
time secretary of war.

The old members, as for instance, Gen. Porter, John
W. Taylor, and Mr. Irving of New-York, were extremely
wary and cautious. It was soon ascertained that few of
us had hopes of succeeding with Tompkins, and Gen.
Porter made some suggestions respecting the chance of
success by holding him up as a candidate in opposition to
the caucus nominaltion; and, although neither he nor any
one else entertained any serious view of taking such a
course, he appeared desirous to direct the attention of the
delegates from the true question, which was, in case
Tompkins was given up, between Crawford and Monroe.
Some one finally observed, that the latter was the impor-
tant, and in reality, the only question to be decided. The
meeting was, notwithstanding, as appeared to me, much
by means of the influence of Gen. Porter, John W. Tay-
lor and Enos T. Throop, broken up without any expres-
sion of opinion as between Monroe and Crawford. I
knew, and those gentlemen at the time knew, that more
than four to one of the delegates were for Crawford. Mr.
Porter, although the fact was not then generally known,
was in favor of Monroe, and he was unwilling it should
be at that juncture publicly known how large a majority
of the New- York delegation was for Crawford, being ap-
prehensive of its efiects on the members of congress from
other states. Gen. Porter was, not long after, appointed
commissioner, under the British treaty, to run the boLn-

410 POLITICAL HISTORY

dary line between the United States and the province of
Canada.

William H. Crawford was a self-made man. He was a
native of Virginia, and, by his parentage, belonged rather
to a plebian than an aristocratic stock. In early life he
emigrated to Georgia, where he soon distinguished himself
in the practice of his profession, which was that of the
law. He rose rapidly in the estimation of the citizens of
his adopted state, and very soon was elected one of the
representatives of that state, in the senate of the United
States. He was chosen as a supporter of the national ad-
ministration, but, during the years 1811, and part of 1812,
he became dissatisfied with what he deemed the indecisive
course of Mr. Madison, with respect to the difficulties be-
tween this country and Great Britain. It has been said,
and probably with truth, that Mr. Madison was at all
times averse to a war wath the British, and that he was
ultimately forced, by the importunity of his friends and
the almost unanimous expression of the opinion of his
party, to recommend a declaration of war. But, be that
as it may, his messages were certainly of an equivocal
character, and so drawn as to bear different constructions.
Mr. Crawford, in a speech in the senate, complained of
this. He said, " The messages are like the responses of
the Delphic oracle," (I quote from memory,) " if you
are for war the messages are for war, if you are for
peace they are peace messages." Mr. Crawford, how-
ever, was soon after removed from the senate, by an
appointment as American minister at Paris. It was said
that one reason why Mr. Madison selected Mr. Crawford,
was, that he apprehended opposition from him, and he
was very desirous, at that crisis, to prevent any division
among his southern democratic friends. Mr. Crawford
acquitted himself creditably at the court of France, and,
in 1815, was recalled to preside over the war department.

OF JSEW-yORK. 411

He was possessed of a vigorous intellectj strictly honest
and honorable in his political conduct, sternly indepen-
dent, and of great decision of character. On the other
hand, Mr. Monroe, though he had been long in public
life, a considerable part of which consisted in the execu-
tion of diplomatic agencies, was, speaking of him as a
candidate for the presidency, not distinguished for vigor
of intellect, or for decision of character, independence of
action, or indeed, for any extraordinary public services.
He made no pretensions to distinction as a writer, or elo-
quence as a public speaker. He seems to have owed his
success in life to great caution, prudence, and deliberation
in every thing which he said or did.

With these views of the merits of Mr. Monroe and Mr.
Crawford, in connection with the fact that the chief ma-
gistracy of the nation had been so long held by citizens of
Virginia, and considering Gov. Tompkins out of the
question, a large majority of the New- York delegation
was rather ardent in support of Mr. Crawford. Gov.
Tompkins thought unkindly of their course. He thought
they had too readily consented to give him up, although
it was well known that Judge Spencer, whose opinion at
that time had great influence with the members, decidedly
preferred Crawford to Tompkins; yet, had there been the
least prospect of his nomination, I have no doubt th<v/
would, in good faith, have supported him to the Kjjt.
Mr. Clinton was for Mr. Monroe. This fact 1 know : —
Mr. Van Buren took no decided part in the matter.* In

* Mr. Van Buren was at Washington in the early part of the session of con-
gress. I asked him whom we ought to support for president ? He replied, with ap-
parent indifference, " We say Tompkins, of course," and then turned the conver-
sation to some other subject. This conversation took place in presence of James
Birdsal, a member from Chenango county, who, after Mr. V. B. withdrew, re-
marked upon his coldness of manner.

After the New- York legislature had been for some time in session, in the winter
of 1816, (February 14,) a legislative caucus was held, at which it was resolved,
that the democratic members of congress from the state of New-York be instructed

412 POLITICAL HISTORY

connection with the New-York delegation, the members
from New-Jersey, part of the Pensylvania delegation, Col.
Conner from Massachusetts, part of the members from
Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina, and the
whole of the Georgia delegation, were for Mr. Crawford.
When congress first assembled, as between Crawford and
Monroe, I have not a particle of doubt, that a majority
of the republican members were for the former. But the
caucus was put off from time to time, until the session
was considerably advanced, and such was the influence of
the administration on its own friends, or from other causes
unknown to me, M^hen the grand caucus was held, Mr.
Crawford received fifty-four votes, and Mr. Monroe sixty-
five, who was therefore nominated for president. Gov.
Tompkins was nominated for vice-president. Of the
members from New- York, I believe, that Messrs. Irving,
Throop and Birdseye, were the only ones who voted for
Monroe. Mr. Taylor was believed to have voted for him,
but he has since told me he did not. Gen. Porter had
resigned his seat, having received the appointment I have
mentioned. Mr. Clay was for Mr. Monroe. [JVote jE.]

The day appointed by law for the meeting of the New-
Y(^ '^^^gislature,was Tuesday the 30th of January. On that
^vis. fj-g ^ sufficient number of the members elect were in
^^ 1^5 but as several of them did not arrive that day, and
a^ ^i^ere were more federalists than republicans absent, the
form\er did not attend the first day, and there being no
quorlim, the republican members who were in attendance,
adjourned until the day following. On Wednesday, one

tp^^^^ort Gov. Tompkins for president. This resolution conld hardly have beea
P'jssed, ciinsiderinr lo known zeal of Judge Spencer for Mr. Cravrford, had not
Mr. Van Bhren e'l^OUiy supported it. But. at thai late day, so sagacious a poli-
tician as Mr. ^^sOUt ■" '"ust have perceivTd that if the New- York delegation,
instead of suppd Crawford, should support Tompkins, the nomination of

Monroe would be I^^^I ed certain, and, of course, both Crawford and Tompkins
would be defeated. Vpoit Albany, Mr. Van Buren was ardent in the support of
Tonnpkins, at Wash'iigion, to say the least, he was philosphically calm and cool

OF NEW-YORK. 413

hundred and twenty members appeared, when Daniel
Cruger of Steuben county was chosen speaker, against J.
R. Van Rensselaer, by a majority of one vote, and Aaron
Clark was elected clerk by a vote of sixty-two to fifty-
nine. There was one blank vote cast. Showing that
there was then in attendance one hundred and twenty-
three members, for as there was no tie the speaker did not
vote. The seats of the remaining three members were
vacant by reason of sickness or death.

Mr. William A. Duer, a federal member from Dutchess,
immediately on the election of Speaker, presented the pe-
tion of Henry Fellows of Ontario county, claiming a right
to a seat in the house as a member elected from Ontario
county, in the place of Peter Allen, to whom the petition-
er alleged a certificate had been improperly granted by
the clerk of that county.

The case contained in the document presented by Mr.
Duer was, as afterwards by the unanimous report of the
committee on elections, in substance as follows: —

Henry Fellows was one of the federal candidates for a
member of the assembly from the county of Ontario, at
the last annual election, and Peter Allen was the candi-
date of the republican party, at the same election, and re-
ceived a greater number of votes than any of the repub-
lican candidates. Among the votes given to Mr. Fellows
were forty-nine votes from the town of Pennington, which
votes were printed ballots, with the name of Henry Fel-
lows thereon. These votes, when added to the residue of
the votes given him in the county, amounted to three thou-
sand seven hundred and twenty-five. Mr. Allen received
three thousand six hundred and ninety-five votes only,
which would have given Fellows a majority of thirty.
The inspectors of election for the town of Pennington
filed a copy of their certificate of the canvass, v/ith the
town clerk, and in that certificate the name of Henry Fel-

414 POLITICAL HISTORY

lows was written at full length, but in the duplicate sent
by the inspectors to the county clerk, Mr. F.'s name was
written " Hen. Fellows." The county clerk rejected these
forty-nine votes which gave Allen nineteen majority, and
therefore he certified that Allen was duly elected. It was
by virtue of a certificate given under these circumstances,
that Mr. Allen claimed his seat.

It will be perceived, that as there actually were but one
hundred and twenty-three members, while Allen retained
his seat the republicans had sixty-two members and
the federalists sixty-one, the moment Fellow^s should
obtain the seat of Allen, then the federalists would have
sixty-two members, and the republicans including the
speaker, would have but sixty-one. The great strug-
gle on the part of the federalists, was to have this
question decided before the council of appointment was
chosen, while the republicans were anxious to put it off
until they could secure this spoil distributing machine;
both parties knownng that eventually the seat must be given
to Mr. Fellows.

It is a curious fact, and strongly illustrative of the im-
portant duty which devolves on every elector at the polls,
that this state of things was produced by oke vote in the
the ballot-box, given in the county of Otsego. There
were two classes of candidates voted for in that county at
the preceding election; and out of five members to be
chosen only one federalist was elected, and that one was
Doct. William Campbell, the late surveyor general. Upon
canvassing the votes, it was found that Doct. Campbell,
being a popular as well as a very worthy man, ran higher
than any of the other federal candidates, and received one
vote more than the lowest republican candidate. Thus if
the inspectors o^ Pennington, and clerk of Ontario coun-
ty had done their duty, one vote in the ballot box would
have controlled the whole patronage of the great state of

OF NEW-YORK- 415

New- York for the ensuing year. Are the important con-
sequences which may result from one vote duly consider-
ed at our popular elections? — I fear not.

Upon the presentation of this petition, Mr. John H.
Beech of Cayuga, a republican member, moved that the
reading of the petition and documents be postponed until
to-morrow. Mr. Duer objected that the motion was not
in order. The speaker decided that the motion was in
order. Mr. Thomas J. Oakley, another member from
Dutchess, appealed from the decision of the speaker.
On the decision of this question, the ayes and noes were
called for, and the clerk was proceeding to call the names
of the members, when Mr. Duer made a motion that the
name of Peter Allen be omitted in calling the roll, on the
ground that he was collaterally interested in the question.
The speaker decided that this last motion of Mr. Duer
was not in order, from which decision an appeal was
taken. The ayes and noes were called on this new ques-
tion of order and it was objected that Peter Allen had not
a right to vote on this question of order, the speaker de-
cided he had such right^ from which last decision there
was an appeal. The house then adjourned.

It is easy to perceive, that in this way there could be no
end to the contest, for every time a new question arose, an
appeal from the decision of the speaker was taken, as to
the right of Peter Allen to vote, and a new question
was presented as to his right to vote upon the question,
which a moment before was itself the new question.

On Thursday morning both parties seemed inclined to
a truce, or rather a suspension of hostilities long enough
for time to breathe a little. They therefore proceeded to
organize the house by the appointment of a doorkeeper,
sergeant-at-arms, &c. and they sent messages to the go-
vernor and senate, informing them that the bouse was or-
ganized. The governor returned for answer, that he would

416 POLITICAL HISTORY

meet the two houses at the assembly chamber on the next
day, and then the house adjourned.

On Friday, the 2nd of February, the governor delh^er-
ed his speech, after which the house adjourned until Sa-
turday morning.

On that morning the contest was again renewed.

Col. Leavenworth, from Delaware county, a gentleman
who distinguished himself as an officer in the late war,
offered a resolution, that the " house will immediately
proceed to nominate and appoint a council of appoint-
ment."

When this resolution was offered, Mr. Lynch offered a
resolution that the resolution to choose a council of ap
pointment be postponed until after a decision of the
right of Peter Allen to a seat in the house. The speaker
decided that Mr. Lynch's motion was not in order, and his
decision was confirmed by the house.

Mr. Oakley then moved to amend the resolution offered
by Col. Leavenworth, by striking out the word " immediate-
ly" and inserting " on Wednesday next, and that in the
mean time the house would consider the right of Peter
Allen to his seat." On this question the ayes and noes
were ordered; and thereupon Mr. Jay made a motion that
Peter Allen be excluded from voting on the amendment
offered by Mr. Oakley. The speaker decided that Mr.
Jay's motion w^as not in order, and Mr. Jay appealed.
Before deciding the question on this appeal, the house ad
journed till Monday.

On Monday, which was the sixth day of the session, the
house met, and forthwith the contest was renewed. Mr.
Duer moved that Peter Allen should not be allowed to
vote on the appeal of Mr. Oakley. The speaker decided
that Mr. D.'s motion was not in order, and from that deci-
sion he appealed. The ayes and noes being taken, the re-
sult was sixty-one votes against the decision of the speak-

' OF NEW-YORK. 417

er, and sixty-one votes including the vote of Mr. Allen,
for sustaining it. The speaker of course voted in favor
of his own decision, and declared the appeal to be lost.

The question in various forms was presented of the
right of Peter Allen to vote on a question affecting his
right to a seat, and on his right to vote on questions affect-
ing his right to vote on those questions, and always ended
with the same results. Peter Allen did vote, and by such
vote the house was equally divided, in all which cases the
decision of the question was of course made by the casting
vote of the speaker.

Eventually the resolution of Col. Leavenworth, to pro-
ceed immediately to the choice of a council of appoint
ment, was adopted by the casting vote of the speaker.
The house then, before any adjournment, proceeded to elect
a council of appointment. The result was as follows: —
Darius Crosby, sixty-three ; William Ross, sixty-one;
Parley Keyes, sixty-one; Archibald S. Clark, sixty-two;
Samuel Verbryck, forty-seven; Abraham Van Vechten,
sixty-one; Gerrit Wendell, sixty-one; Henry Seymour,
sixty-one.

Two of the four first mentioned gentlemen were elected
(Mr. Ross and Mr. Keyes,) by the casting vote of the
speaker, and the vote of Peter Allen.

On the next day after the council of appointment was
chosen, the committee of elections reported, on the peti-
tion of Mr. Fellows, the facts I have stated, and unani-
mously recommended the adoption of a resolution that Pe-
ter Allen was not entitled to a seat in that house, and that
such seat of right belonged to Henry Fellows.

On the question of agreeing to the report, the ayes
and noes were called, and one hundred and fifteen mem-
bers voted in the affirmative, and one only, (Mr. Ganson
of Genesee) in the negative.

27

418 POLITICAL HISTORY

Since all interest in these proceedings have si.bsided, I
trust very few men can be found who will justify the pro-
ceedings of the republican part of this house of as-
sembly.

As to the right of Mr. Allen to a seat there could not be
two opinions. It was a palpable case of error in the re-
turning officer. The Clerk of Ontario county must have
been stupid, to a degree approaching to idiocy, or he must
have acted corruptly and fraudulently; and this view of
his conduct must have been taken by every man of common
sense in the assembly.

Again, Allen had a direct interest in retaining a seat in
the house, and no member can vote on a question in which
he is interested, and yet Peter Allen was allowed to vote
on questions distinctly affecting his continuance in that
house as a member.

The result is that the council of appointment, chosen
by the vote of Peter Allen, had no moral right to exercise
the functions of their office, procured by a species of le-
gislative pettifogging and barefaced trickery.

The council of appointment which had been created
after this severe contest, had very little to do. Few of-
fices were or became vacant, and the incumbents were all,
or nearly all, the political friends of the council. Gen.
Porter resigned the office of secretary of state, and Robert
Tillotson, a very worthy and accomplished man, the son
of the late secretary Doct. Tillotson, was appointed in
his place.

Some gentlemen of the republican party, then in Alba-
ny, gave Allen a dinner, which I believe was all he ever
received for the shameful prostitution of himself for party
purposes.

The governor's speech was principally occupied in re-
marks relating to the war. He did not submit any spe-
cial recommendations on any subject of importance. In

OF NEW-YORK. 419

relation to the contemplated Erie canal, which now began
to excite universal attention, he merely said,

" It will rest with the legislature, whether the prospect
of connecting the waters of the Hudson with those of the
Western Lakes and of Champlain, is not sufficiently im-
portant to demand the appropriation of some part of the re-
venues of the state to its accomplishment, without impo-
sing too great a burthen upon our constituents. The first
route being an object common with the states of the west,
we may rely on their zealous co-operation in any judicious
plan that can perfect the water communication in that di-
rection. As it relates to the connecting the waters of the
Hudson with those of Lake Champlain, we may with
equal confidence, count on the same spirited exertions of
the patriotic and enterprising state of Vermont."

From the above extract, .it will be perceived that he was
far from being willing to commit himself in favor of the
measure. His words are measured with great care. In-
deed, his allusion to the " imposing too great a burden
on our (their) constituents," seems to me evidently thrown
in for the purpose of creating alarm.

After the controversy in relation to Allen, no serious
collisions took place betw^een the federal and republican
parties, during the remainder of the session, but the
foundation for very fierce and lasting animosities between
different sections of the democratic party was shortly af-
terwards laid, or rather a foundation for such collisions
having previously been laid, the consequences of such
collisions began now to be exhibited.

We have seen Judge Spencer, whose towering influence
in the democratic party had long been felt throughout the
state, and especially in the legislature, — an influence,which
in public estimation, received an immense increase by the
prostration of De Witt Clinton, — recently, and no doubt
unexpectedly to him, as w^ell as most of the lookers

420 POLITICAL HISTORY

on, defeated, in his favorite views in relation to an
United States senator, and perhaps we may add in relation
to the appointment of an attorney general. The deceased
Mr. Hildreth, who, while the democratic party had the
power of controlling that appointment, held that office
until his death, considered, and perhaps truly, that he re-
ceived the appointment through the influence of his friend,
the judge; and it could not have been a very pleasing re-
flection to Mr. Spencer, that the office, was now possessed
by a man who obtained it not only without his aid, but
asfainst his wishes. The incumbent of that office in con-
nexion with Gov. Tompkins, had had the address to
thwart his most cherished hopes of placing a man, in
whom, above all others, he confided, in the senate of the
United Slates; and what, perhaps, was still more painful,
the contest in relation to the matter had afibrded a demon-
stration that he could be beaten.

So great is the change in the w^orking of our system of
government, since the abolition of the council of appoint-
ment, and the election by the people of most of those of-
ficers who were created by that branch of the executive
government, that if it be not now, it will hereafter be al-
most unaccountable how an individual, not officially con-
nected with either the legislative or executive department
of government, could have acquired, and for so long a
time, held so much influence as Judge Spencer did in the
state. I will endeavor to explain it.

My readers will bear in mind, that all officers, including
sheriffs, clerks of counties and justices of the peace, were
appointed by the council at Albany. The appointment
of justices conferred a more effectual means on the central
power, of influencing the mass of community, than all the
other patronage within the gift of the government. The
control over these officers carried the influence of the cen-
tral power into every town and even the most obscure

OF KEW-YORK. 421

neighborhood in the state. A judge of the supreme
court takes up his residence in Albany; under the old cir-
cuit system his official duties, in the course of three or four
years, carried him into every county in the state, and pre-
sented him in an attitude most favorable to the people of
the respective counties. Four times a year many of the
lawyers, from various parts of the state, were required to
atj;end the supreme court at bar. Would it be difficult
for a judge to form an intimate and friendly acquaintance
with some citizen of each county, perhaps a lawyer, with
whom he could communicate, especially when such law-
yer ascertained that by this intercourse he could, through
the influence of the judge, procure appointments for his
friends, and in that way increase his influence and impor-
tance at home. The people, say for instance, of Orange
county, find that the recommendations to office, if given
by Mr. B., are sure to be successful. If two men, (C. and
D.,) of the town of Warwick are candidates for the office
of justice of the peace, and Mr. B. writes to the judge in
behalf of C, and he is appointed in preference to D., Mr
B.,by such operations in several other towms in the county,
will soon be found to be an influential man in the county
of Orange; and when members of assembly or a member
of congress are to be nominated, by a county caucus,
whose advice is so likely to be followed as Mr. B.'s 1
On the other hand, B. knows that his power depends upon
sustaining the influence and power of his patron at the
seat of government. Hence, he will endeavor that the
assemblymen and senators, when they arrive at Albany,
shall listen to, and follow the advice of the man through
whom he derives a considerable portion of his consequence.
It cannot fail of being perceived that the tendency of this
process is to increase the political power of B. in the
county of Orange, while that very increase adds to the
power of the judge stationed at the capitol. Now we will

422 POLITICAL HISTORY

suppose a judge of the supreme court to possess some
such confidential friend, in all, or nearly all, the principal
counties in the state, producing the same results as I have
supposed to have been produced in the county of Orange.
Will Hot these petty regents in the different counties
create in their patron a grand regent at the capitol 1 By
some such means. Judge Spencer acquired and possessed
great power in creating yearly the appointing power, and
the ability to create generally carries with it the ability to
control the thing created. Judge Spencer was, and is
truly, a great man, but he was not only fond of power but
fond of exercising it. He was industrious, bold, enterpri-
sing and persevering. To these qualities it may be added,
that he was a man of a commanding intellect, and one of
the ablest judges, if not the ablest judge, in the United
States. A high and enviable reputation as a jurist was
accorded to him, as well by opponents as friends, and
from his judicial station he could not be removed, let par-
ties change and fluctuate as they might.

The political power of Judge Spencer was at its zenith
from 1813 to 1815. In 1816 the popularity of Gov.
Tompkins, and the talents, smooth and fascinating address,
and management of Martin Van Buren, and their constant
intercourse with the members of the legislature, enabled
them to gain an influence in that body which the Judge
became apprehensive would curtail, if not prostrate, his
own, and he therefore deemed it desirable to call in some
further aid. There was no man who could balance and
neutralize the influence of Tompkins and Van Buren so
effectually as De Witt Clinton, could he be restored to the
confidence of the ruling party. But could he be restored ?

Judge Spencer had taken a most active and efficient
part in destroying that confidence. In saying this, I do
not mean to say that many parts of the political conduct of
Mr. Clinton had not merited the animadversions of Judge

OF NEW-YORK. 423

Spencer, or any other honest man attached to the republi-
can interest. But, could Judge Spencer, who had been
unreserved in his denunciations to his republican friends,
go to those very friends and urge the restoration to their
confidence and support the man he had denounced 1 and,
if he could bring himself to attempt it, could he hope for
success in the attempt 1 Would not his own words be
retorted upon him 1 A less enterprising, a less daring
mind than Judge Spencer's, would surely have been de-
terred from such an undertaking. But he did, neverthe-
less, undertake it, and what is more wonderful, his efforts
were successful. I must not be understood as intending
to represent, or even insinuate, that Judge Spencer, on
this or any other occasion, yielded his assent to any mea-
sure, or the support of any man, when he believed, or
suspected, that such assent would prejudice substantially
the great interests of the public. Far from it. On the
contrary, I believe him to have been honest and patriotic
in his views; but I believe he looked on these matters as
mere personal questions, and thought he had a right to
pursue a course calculated to advance his own views and
interest, when that interest was not incompatible with the
public good.

Unfortunately for Mr. Clinton, most of his republican
friends, who at this time adhered to him, rather injured
than aided him. With the exception of T. A. Emmett,.
who really could not be said to be a party politician,
and S. Miller of whom I have before spoken, and P.
C Van Wyck, who was a man of fine talents,* Mr.
Clinton's New-York supporters were generally men of
broken down fortunes, and appeared to do little else than
laud the man they had selected for their patron. Several
of the lobby agents for the Bank of America, and
some of the republican members of the N. Y. legisla-

* A few words contained in the first edition are here omitted, as they have beeu
supposed to imply an imputation against Mr. Van Wyck, not intended by the author.

424 POLITICAL HISTORY

ture, who aided in chartering that institution, claimed to
be the especial friends of Mr. Clinton. Some of them,
no doubt, finding that they had lost their standing and
reputation, professed the most ardent regard for Mr. Clin-
ton, in the hope that their unpopularity would be imputed
to the support of an unsuccessful political leader, rather
than to their own misconduct. All these men were loud
in their praises of Mr. Clinton, especially in his presence;
and unluckily, in common with many other great men, he
was rather too well pleased to hear his own praises
chaunted, without much scrutiny into the characters or
merits of the pipers. In the re-union with him, contem-
plated by Judge Spencer, the latter, therefore, had every-
thing to lose and but little to gain, while Mr. Clinton,
politically, had really nothing to lose and every thing to
gain.

A circumstance occurred shortly before the meeting of
the legislature, that put Mr. Clinton directly in communi-
cation with its members. A great and highly respectable
meeting of the citizens of New- York was held, at which
William Bayard presided, and John Pintard was secretary,
when spirited resolutions were adopted in favor of con-
structing the Erie and Champlain canals, and an able me-
morial to the legislature was drawn up by Mr. Clinton, in
the name of the meeting. As the agent of this meeting,
and as canal commissioner, the presence of Mr. Clinton, at
Albany, became necessary, and the discharge of his duties
brought him frequently in contact with the members of
the legislature. It is not my intention to enter into a de-
tail of the agency which Mr. Clinton had in procuring the
adoption of our splendid system of internal improvements,
nor of the action of political men in relation to that mea-
sure, further than the measure itself shall seem to affect
the standing and influence of politicians, and the action of
parties.

OP NEW-YORK. 425

Professor Renwick, in his biography of Clinton, and
other writers who have favored us with the history of the
rise and progress of the canal policy, will, of course, be
consulted by those who are desirous of obtaining an accu-
rate and correct knowledge of that interesting and impor-
tant branch of the history of the state of New-York.

On the 7th of February a highly respectable meeting of
gentlemen of both political parties was held in Albany, of
which Chancellor Lansing was chairman, and the comp-
troller, Archibald Mclntyre, was secretary, for the purpose
of memorializing the legislature in behalf of constructing
the canal.

This meeting and its proceedings had an effect, not
only to give an impetus to the canal policy, but to give
weight to the communications of Mr. Clinton in his inter-
course with the members, and to diminish that apprehen-
sion, which small politicians sometimes entertain, of con-
tamination by any intercourse with a person who is politi-
cally put in Coventry by the party to which they belong.

The federalists, before the adjournment of the legisla-'
ture, nominated Rufus King for governor, and George
Tibbits, of Troy, for lieutenant governor.

On the other hand, the democratic party held a legisla-
tire caucus on the 20th of February, at which Governor
Tompkins and Lt. Gov. Taylor were nominated for a re-
election.

A law was passed by this legislature, entitled, "An Act
to provide for the improvement of the internal navigation
of this state." By this statute the laws passed on this
subject, in 1811 and 1812, were repealed, and Stephen
Van Rensselaer, De Witt Clinton, Samuel Young, Joseph
Ellicott and Myron Holley, were appointed canal commis-
sioners. Mr. Van Rensselaer was selected in consequence
of his great wealth and high character for integrity, and
dismterested zeal for the welfare and prosperity of the

426 POLITICAL HISTORY

state; Mr. Clinton, on account of the intimate acquaint-
ance he had acquired with all matters relating to the sub-
ject, his admitted zeal for the improvement, and his great
talents. Mr. Young was highly esteemed for his talents
and integrity. He was the friend of Gov. Tompkins, and
had been supposed to be in doubt as to the expediency of
the undertaking. His appointment may have "been in
part caused by a desire of the supporters of the canal poli-
cy to avail themselves of his influence with his immediate
political friends, and to divest the board of commissioners
of any party character. Joseph Ellicott was the agent
of the great Holland Land Company, residing at Batavia;
of course a zealous friend to the canal, and a man of
wealth and influence; and Myron Holley was that year a
member of the Assembly from Ontario county; a man of
respectable literary attainments, personally much esteemed,
and ardent in his support of the canal policy. These
commissioners were, by this act, formed into a regular
board, and required to cause all necessary surveys and
estimates to be made, to receive grants and donations, and
to report the result of their doings to the next legislature.
The republican party this year, was, on the score of
talent, when compared with the federalists, indiff"erently
represented. Mr. Young, although he had been speaker
of the last assembly, was not returned as a member from
Saratoga. A combination had been formed against him,
which defeated his nomination by the republican conven-
tion held in that county; and although, I believe, he was
voted for by a portion of the electors, he did not obtain a
plurality of votes; and this schism among the republicans
of Saratoga occasioned the election of one federal member,
(Mr. Hamilton,) although the county was democratic by
a considerable majority. Mr. John H. Beach from Cayu-
ga, Col. Leavenworth from Delaware, and Mr Cruger, the
-speakfer, were almost the only members who took much

OF NEW-YORK. 427

\

part in the debates. They were men respectable for their
standing in society, and two of them held a middling rank
at the bar as lawyersj but they were inexperienced as le-
gislators, and lacked confidence in their own powers, when
drawn into competition with the federal leaders in the
assembly. Doct. G. H. Barstow from Tioga, was, that
winter, for the first time, a member of a legislative body.
He was a clear headed, sagacious man, of a discriminating
mind, but he was difllident and, at that time, wholly un-
used to public extemporary speaking.

On the other hand, the federalists were represented by
Peter A. Jay, a son of the late governor, one of the first
lawyers of the city of New-York, of fine native intellec-
tual powers and of an highly cultivated mind; William
A. Duer from Dutchess, now known as an able and ac-
complished writer, who afterwards held the office of judge
of the third circuit, and now presides over Columbia Col-
lege with distinguished ability; and Thomas J. Oakley ,who,
although a new member of the legislature of New-York,
had been for some time before a member of congress, and
held a standing in that body highly respectable. For my
part, I consider Thomas J. Oakley one of the most talented
men which the state of New-York has produced. His
intellectual powers were strong and vigorous, and he was
capable of immense mental labor. Always cool and cal
culating, in the highest heat of debate he possessed a most
perfect self control, and never permitted his feelings to
get ihe better of his judgment. As a clear, ingenious and
logical, though sometimes sophistical reasoner, he has
appeared to me unrivalled in our legislative balls at Alba-
ny. He is not an orator. He fails of being so from
his want of ardor of feeling, and his utter lack of imagi-
native powers. His coolness, his caution, his forecast,
and his perfect self command, peculiarly fit him for a
party leader in a legislative assembly. In congress he

428 POLITICAL KISTOUY

(liifered from the over zealous eastern federalists. He
wished, at least, to manifest an apparent disposition to
furnish supplies to government for carrying on the war,
and to confine his opposition to the manner in which the
war was carried on. Mr. Clopton, an old and sagacious
politician of Virginia, who was a member of congress
from the adoption of the constitution until his death, told
me, in 1816, that had the federal members of congress,
during the war, put themselves exclusively under the
management of Oakley, and implicitly followed his lead,
in his judgment, the administration would have been
prostrated.

Of Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer I have already spoken,
as a man of respectable talents, adroit as a debater, and
bold, decided and actirve as a political partizan. James
Vanderpoel, a respectable lawyer from Columbia county,
and subsequently judge of the third circuit, and James
Lynch from Oneida county, now a judge of one of the
New-York courts, were also members of the assembly
during this session, and contributed by their talents and
influence to sustain the federal side of the question in that
house.

Before giving the result of the election, it may be pro-
per to state, that a new organization had been made rela-
tive to the division of the state into senatorial districts; by
w^hich, among other alterations, the counties of Albany,
Otsego, Schoharie and Chenango, had been annexed to,
and made a part of the middle district.

The election resulted, as had been anticipated, in favor
of the republican party. The city of New-York elected
republican members of assembly, and, in the state, more
than two-thirds of the members elect, of that body, be-
longed to the same class of politicians. All the senato-
rial districts, except the eastern, were democratic; and
"Tompkins and Taylor were re-elected by a large majority.

OF NEW-YORK. 429

The senators elected from the southern district, were
John D. Ditmis and Walter Bowne. Middle — Martin
Van Euren, John Noyes and Peter Ssvart. Western—
Ephraim Hart, John Knox and William M^llory.

430 POLITICAL HISTORY

CHAPTER XXll.

FROM MAY 1, 1816, TO MAY 1, 1817.

Before the close of the 29th session of the legislature,
a personal interview had taken place between Mr. Clinton
and Judge Spencer, and a reconciliation had been effected.
There were other besides political reasons which led to
this. Mrs. Spencer was the sister of De Witt Clinton;
and it could not but be painful to her that such a state of
feeling should exist between her husband and brother, as
prevented even their speaking to each other. She was a
perfectly amiable woman, and the judge properly apprecia-
ted her merits. He therefore did not fail of being desi-
rous to remove this cause of her uneasiness and anxiety.

On the 8th of July, the council of appointment again
met in New- York, and removed John Van Ness Yates
from the office of Recorder of Albany, and appoint-
ed Philip S. Parker in his place. This removal was
said to have been effected by a very pressing letter of
Judge Spencer, addressed to Mr, Ross, one of the mem-
bers of the council. Mr. Parker was a nephew and rather a
favorite of Judge Spencer. Mr. Yates was a man of great
versatility of talent, social, companionable, and on free and
easy terms with all classes of citizens; and he had many
friends, especially among what was called the lower order
of community; but he was somewhat irregular in his habits
and lax in his morals. He had been for a long time record-
er. The alleged cause of his removal, was that he had been
an agent for the applicants for a charter of the Bank of Ame-
rica, and a Clintonian. With respect to the aid he gave to
the bank applicants,the charge seemed rather stale; and as to
Lis having been a Clintonian, the time had arrived when it

OF NEW-YORK, 431

did not seem quite consistent for Judge Spencer to allege
that as a sufficient cause of his removal from office. It was
also said, that his ill-health prevented him from being
able properly to discharge his official duties. The office,
however, was not an important one, and his removal from
it would hardly excuse this notice, was it not that less
than two years afterwards it became the cause of serious
political embarrassment, which will be stated in its proper
place.

As Gov. Tompkins had been nominated, and accepted
the nomination, for the office of vice-president, it was an-
ticipated that the office of governor of this state would
become vacant on the fourth of March, then next; and
very active measures were taken by the friends of Mr.
Clinton during this summer to procure his nomination by
the republican parly for the office of governor, when it
should become vacant. The friends of the canal were
generally in his favor, and this brought nearly the whole
of the great west to his support. Mr. Van Buren, al-
though he was opposed to Mr. Clinton, seems not at this
time to have felt much apprehension.

The legislature met on the 5th of November, for the
purpose of choosing presidential electors. David Woods
cf Washington county, was chosen speaker. He receiv-
ed eighty-four votes, while the federal candidate, James
Emott of Dutchess county, received but thirty-three.

The governor's speech contains nothing remarkable.
He did not utter a single word on the subject which at
that time engrossed more of public attention than any
other, — which was the construction of the grand canal.
His silence on so important a matter seems to me whol-
ly inexcusable. The constitution commanded him " to
recommend such matters to the legislature, as should ap-
pear to him to concern the good government, welfare and
prosperity of the state." He knew that the maeni-

432 POLITICAL HISTOKY

ficent sclieme of opening a navigable communication be ■
t-ween the tide waters of Hudson's river, and the great
lakes, deeply agitated the public mindj and that it would
become the duty of that legislature to decide that great
and momentous question. Was it not his duty, as the
governor of the state, to have officially advised them of
his opinion on the matter? If he was in favor of it he
should have so declared himselfj if against it, he should
have warned them not to adventure on the measure. There
was a timidity, (may I not say a littlenessT) in thus eva-
ding the question, unsuitable to the character of an able,
honest and independent statesman.

Electors were chosen favorable to the election of Mon-
roe and Tompkins. The ticket was headed by Henry
Rutgers of New-York, and Samuel Chipman oi one of the
western counties, as state electors. It does not tell well for
our institutions, when I affirm, what I verily believe to be
true, that ninety-nine out of one hundred of the citizens
of this state would have preferred some other man for
president to James Monroe. But it is nevertheless true,
that it is many times excusable, and sometimes one's duty,
to vote for men who are not our first choicej upon the
principle of submitting to a lesser, for the purpose of
avoiding a greater evil. The legislature adjourned to the
21st of January, then next.

On the 28th of January, 1817, the governor sent a mes-
sage to the legislature recommending the entire abolition
of slavery in the state of New- York, to take place on the
fourth day of July, 1827, By an act passed some years
before, all persons born of parents who were slaves after
July, 1799, were to be free; males at twenty-eight and
females at twenty-five years of age. The present legisla-
ture adopted the recommendation of the governor. This
great measure in behalf of human rights, which was to
obliterate forever the black and foul stain of slavery from

OF NEW-YORK. 433

the escutcheon of our own favored state, was produced by
the energetic action of Cadwallader D. Golden, Peter A.
Jay, William Jay, Daniel D. Tompkins and other dis-
tinguished philanthropists, chiefly residing in the city of
New- York. The Society of Friends, who never slumber
when the principles of benevolence and a just regard to
equal rights call for their action, were zealously engaged in
this great enterprise. Gov. Tompkins deserves to be, and
his memory will be embalmed in the bosom of every hu-
man being who loves and reveres themunificient and mer-
ciful Father of the Universe, and duly appreciates the
equal rights of man for the efficient part he took in be-
half of the crushed slave. If in reference to internal im
provements, his action was that of a calculating and wily
politician, in the cause of humanity he was bold, energetic
and decisive. Here, he did not stop to calculate. Here,
governed by the humane and generous feelings which
were inherent in his nature, (for I believe constitutionally
he possessed a kind and generous heart,) he did not hesi-
tate to assume responsibilities, and obey the dictates of
justice and the impulse of humanity. I can forgive him
for his conduct in relation to the canal, but I could never
forgive myself were I for a moment to forget to be grate-
ful to him for this great and godlike act.

When the legislature convened, it was found that a
strong and considerably powerful portion of the republi-
can members were for nominating Mr. Clinton for govern-
or, when that ofl^ce should become vacant by the election
of Gov. Tompkins to the vice-presidency. Among the
most active were Mr. Hart and Mr. Ross of the senate,
and Mr. Speaker Woods and G. W. Barstow of the as-
sembly. Still, such were the remaining prejudices against
Mr. Clinton, founded on his conduct during the presiden-
tial canvass with Mr. Madison, and more especially upon

nis action during the contest for the election of governor

28

434 POLITICAL HISTORY

in 1813; aided and kept alive as these prejudices were, by
the address and efforts of Gov. Tompkins and Mr. Van
Buren, that it was doubtful whether a majority for him in
the legislature could be obtained. But Mr. Clinton had
an immensely powerful ally who was not a member of the
legislature, and that ally was Ambrose Spencer. He was
truiv a host within himself.

The members most efficient in opposing the nomination
of Mr. Clinton, were Van Buren, P. R. Livingston and
Bowne of the senate, and the representatives in the as-
sembly from the city of New-York, and generally, the
members from the southern district.

Three distinct schemes were considered by Mr. Van Bu-
ren, and those acting with him, to defeat the project of
making Mr. Clinton governor.

First. It was proposed, inasmuch as neither the consti-
tution of this state nor of the United States, had expressly
declared that it was incompatible for a vice-president of
the United States to hold that office and at the same time
hold the office of governor, that Gov. Tompkins should
hold both offices. This expedient was soon rejected and
probably by Mr. Tompkins himself. It is not to be presum-
ed that so wary a politician, then in the prime of life, would
venture to encounter the clamor, which he must have fore-
seen,the attempt to executesuch a plan would excitej and
what was worse, such clamor would be well founded; for
although, the holding of the two offices was not expressly
unconstitutional, yet it was most evident that it was palpa-
bly inconsistent with the spirit of the two governments
and that the anticipated clamor would be founded on the
immutable principles of right.

Second. The twentieth article of the constitution pro-
Tides, that " in case of the impeachment of the governor,
or his removal from the office by death, resignation or ab-
tente from the staicj the lieutenant governor shall exer-

OF NEW-YORK. 435

cise all the power and authority appertaining to the office
of governor until another be chosen, or until the governor
absent or impeached shall return or be acquitted." Un-
der this clause in the old constitution it was proposed to
claim that the lieutenant governor would constitutionally
be governor until the regular gubernatorial election, which
would not take place until the year 1819. But to this the
friends of Mr. Clinton replied, that this clause merely in-
tended that in case of the death, resignation, &c., of the
governor, the lieutenant governor should execute the power
of a governor, only until the next succeeding annual state
election; and in support of this construction, they referred
to the seventeenth article of the constitution, which or-
dains " that the supreme executive power and authority of
this state shall be vested in a governor, and that statedly,
once in every three years, and as often as the seat of go-
vernment shall become vacant, a wise and discreet free-
holder shall be chosen."

After some reflection it would seem that Mr. Van Bu-
ren did not choose to hazard the reputation of his party,
and his own reputation as a lawyer, on this ground; for
although, when after the resignation of Gov. Tompkins,
a bill was brought into the assembly to provide for the elec-
tion of a successor, by Mr. Ford of Jefferson county, which
was passed by seventy-four members voting in the affirma-
tive, yet there were thirty-two votes in the negative, nearly
if not all of whom were opponents of the nomination of
Mr. Clinton. In the senate, the bill did not encounter
a very serious opposition. Messrs. Van Buren, Livingston
and others, voting for it; although Messrs. Bowne, Can-
tine, (Van Buren's brother-in-law,) and others, voted
against it.

Third. The only remaining means to defeat the views
of the friends of Mr. Clinton, was to nominate some oth-

436 POLITICAL HISTORY

er person for the republican candidate for governorj by
obtaining a majority in the legislative caucus.

Three of the members of the council elected on the
13th of February, of this year were decidedly in favor of
Mr. Clinton; that is to say, as between Mr. Van Buren and
Judge Spencer, they were the friends of Spencer. This
was a great point gained, and it seems to me Mr. Van
Buren and Gov. Tompkins, if they possessed the power,
should have prevented this. Whether they made any
systematic effort to do so, I am not advised.

The council consisted of Walter Bowne from the south-
ern, John Noyes from the middle, John I . Prendergast
from the eastern, and Henry Bloom from the western dis-
tricts. All but Mr. Bowne were for Mr. Clinton. Hence,
those who sought office well knew whose nomination for
governor it was their interest to support.

A large majority of the federal party w^ere very anx-
ious for the nomination of Mr. Clinton; and in case of
his nomination, they did not intend any opposition.
Among those most active in their endeavors to produce
this determination of the party, were Judges Van Ness
and Piatt, J. R. Van Rensselaer, Elisha Williams, and
generally the leading federalists in the city of New-York.
The ardent temperament of Judge Van Ness, and some
other federalists would not permit them to remain neutral
on the question respecting the nomination then agitated
among the republicans.

One principle ground of attack upon Mr. Clinton, by
Mr. Van Buren and his friends was, that Clinton kept up
a secret understanding with the federalists, and was still
acting in concert with that party; and the zeal manifested
by Judge Van Ness and others, for the selection of Clin-
ton as the gubernatorial candidate, was managed by Mr.
Van Buren with great skill and adroitness, to alarm the
fears and excite the jealousies of the republicans. Under

OF NFAV-YORK. 437

these circumstances, and considering the popularity of
Gov. Tompkins, and the extraordinary tact, address and
persevering industry of Mr. Van Buren, the friends of
Clinton very justly entertained apprehensions that after
all, in a purely legislative caucus, a majority would ulti-
mately be found against him.

Heretofore, it had been the uniform usage of the demo-
cratic party to select their candidate for governor, by the
majority of voices declared at an assemblage of men com-
posed exclusively of the republican members of the legis-
lature. By this arrangement those republican citizens
who resided in counties represented by federalists, could
have no voice in the selection of a candidate for that im-
portant office. This the Clintonians complained of as
unreasonable and unjust. They therefore, proposed that
delegates should be chosen in county convention, which
convention should be formed of delegates chosen at the
primary meetings of republicans in the respective towns,
and that the delegates thus chosen from the counties equal
in number to the members of assembly from the respec-
tive counties, should, in a caucus to nominate a governor,
have the same rights and exercise the same powers as re-
republican members of the legislature. It was, I believe,
well understood, that in the greatest proportion of the
counties represented by federalists, a very large majority
of the republicans were in favor of the nomination of Mr.
Clinton. Besides, the Clintonians, by means of the coun-
cil of appointment, controlled the patronage of the state,
and it was not difficult for a man who understood the
use of that machine as well as Judge Spencer, to con-
trol by its influence, the action of most of the county con-
ventions. Hence, it was most evident that the adoption
of the scheme could scarcely fail to forward, and perhaps,
I may add, ensure the triumph of Mr. Clinton.

In accordance with these views, a republican conven-

438 POLITICAL HISTORY

tion was first held in the county of Albany, at which John
J. Moak was chairman, and Jacob Lansing secretary, on the
fourth of February, when it was resolved that the coun-
ties represented by federalists in the legislature, ought to
be represented in the state convention to nominate a go-
vernor, by republican delegates chosen by such counties;
and Albany being represented by federalists, John Wood-
worth, Elisha Jenkins, John McCarthy and Thomas Bar-
man were appointed delegates from the county of Albany.
Other counties respectable for their wealth, number, and
influence, followed the example.

The delegates to the state convention thus chosen were
generally favorable to the nomination of Mr. Clinton; and
like the delegates from the county of Albany were com-
posed of republicans of high standing and character.
From the county of Oneida, Nathan Williams, and Henry
Huntington were chosen, and from the county of Ontario,
Gideon Granger, the late eminent and distinguished post-
master general was a delegate.

One difficulty which Mr. Van Buren and his friends had
to encounter, was to fix upon an opposing candidate to
Mr. Clinton in caucus. Who was the man that would
accept the post and combine the greatest strength, was a
question not easy to be judiciously decided. They
finally fixed on Judge Yates. He had adhered to, and
defended Mr. Clinton long after he had been denounced
by Judge Spencer. On his circuit the preceding sum-
mer, he had in various places urged his friends to sup-
port the nomination of Clinton. It was supposed that
the known friendship of Judge Yates to Mr. C. would
induce some of the latter to support the former; but a
^different result was produced. Men felt indignant when
they were invited to support a man in opposition, who had
himself taken pains and been instrumental in convincing
them that Clinton ought to be chosen governor. A day

OF NEW-YORK. 439

or two before the meeting of the state convention, Judge
Yates positively declined being a candidate. This pro-
duced some confusion in the ranks of the opposition, but
they finally fixed upon Gen. Peter B. Porter as their can-
didate.

The state convention vsras held at the capitol on the
25th March. Upon balloting for a candidate, Mr. Clin-
ton received eighty-five votes and Gen. Porter forty-one.
It was understood that sixty members and twenty-five
delegates voted for Mr. Clinton, and thirty-three members
and seven delegates for his opponent.

A few days before the fourth of March, Mr. Tompkins
resigned his office of governor, and the executive autho-
rity then devolved upon Lieutenant Governor Taylor,
who, I have omitted to meniion, was nominated for re-
election.

Mr. Tayler was an uneducated man of great native sa-
gacity. By his shrewdness and excellent judgment, and
also by his correct business habits, he had in early life ac-
quired a large estate. He had improved his fine native
mind by considerable reading, and by being long in pub-
lic office he had acquired from association a deportment
and address at once dignified and agreeable. As a legis-
lator he was always exceedingly careful of the interest of the
state, and it was with great reluctance that he M'ould con-
sent to an expenditure of its funds for any purpose. Per-
haps his error as a legislator consisted in excessive parsi-
mony when the state was concerned. His only fault was
one which is common to all men, he was naturally selfish,
and that propensity manifested itself not only in his pe-
cuniary transactions, but in the bestowment of offices,
which either directly or indirectly came within his control
or influence. This propensity increased with his age.
Gov. Tayler had no children, but he had adopted a child
who was his relative, and who afterwards became the wife

440 POLITICAL HISTORY

of Dr. Charles D. Cooper, as his daughter, and treated her
and her husband and their children as his own family.

No important business was done by the council while
Mr. Tayler was president of it, with one single exception.
While Mr. Bowne was absent in New-York, Mr. Robert
Tillotson was removed from the office of secretary of
state, and Dr. Charles D. Cooper was appointed in his
place. This removal was without reason, and indeed
without excuse ; For no objections were made against
the political principles of Mr. Tillotson. True, he had
opposed the nomination of Mr. Clinton, which he had an
undoubted right to do, and which it was his duty to do,
provided he supposed the republican party would thereby
be endangered, or that Mr. C.'s administration would not
be so beneficial to the state, as would be likely to be that
of some other person who might be selected. Not the
least suspicion of official misconduct was breathed against
him; he had held the office but a very short time, and
came into it not by the removal of an incumbent, but to
fill a vacancy produced by the resignation of Mr. Porter.
It was a mere exertion of power to provide a place for
a member of the family of the president of the council.
I do not make these remarks from any want of respect to
the merits and character of Doct. Cooper. I knew him
long and well, as a remarkably correct man, and as a man
of integrity and honor. I am equally unwilling to charge
Gov. Tayler with intentional error. Long habit had in-
duced him to believe that if a man could legally get pos-
session of an office for himself or friend, he ought to do so.
This error grew out of the form of the government itself,
and the manner in which public opinion had tolerated its
action through that singular machine, called the council of
appointment.* Mr. Noyes and Mr. Bloom were both il-

• Judge Spencer was guilty of the same error ■when he urged on the preceding
council the removal of Mr. J. Van Ness Yates and the appointment of his nepbew.

OF NEW- YORK. 441

literate men, and they, as well as Mr. Prendergast, were
entirely unaccustomed to public life, and strangers to the
possession or exercise of any other powers than those
which belong to private citizens. In a short time, they
knew that they should return to private life. It is
not uncharitable to say, that neither of them knew the
extent of the powers they possessed, much less did they
consider the serious effects which would ultimately be pro-
duced on society by their capricious removals and appoint-
ments; and yet nearly all the officers of the great state of
New- York were then held subject to the arbitrary will and
pleasure of these three men.

The bill committing the state to construct the canals^
became a law on the last day of the session, which
terminated on the 15th April. The vote in the assembly
stood sixty-four to thirty-six. The sixty-four members
who voted in the affirmative, were composed principally,
if not entirely of the friends of the nomination of Mr.
Clinton and the federalists. The thirty-six noes were
chiefly his opponents.

In the senate the bill passed by a vote of eighteen to
nine. Those who voted against the bill, with the excep-
tion of two, (Messrs. Noyes and Bloom, who were rather
Spenceronians than Clintonians,) were opponents of Mr.
Clinton. There were, however, five senators who were
zealous anti-Clintonians who voted for the bill. Perhaps
it is not too much to say, that this result was produced by
the efficient and able efforts of Mr. Van Buren, who was
an early friend of the measure.

I regret to feel compelled to refer to the proceedings in
the court of errors as an evidence, or rather as affording
suspicion, that party spirit may enter into that high judi-
cial tribunal.

A bill in chancery had been filed by the residuary
legatees of Walter Franklin, to set aside a sale by the

442 POLITICAL HISTORY

executor of Franklin, of a large tract of land to John L.
Norton and De Witt Clinton. Chancellor Kent dismissed
the bill and ordered the sale confirmed. The complain-
ants appealed to the court for the correction of errors,
and it was argued in the winter of 1817. A few days be-
fore the adjournment of the legislature, the court of er-
rors pronounced their judgment affirming the decree of
the chancellor. Judge Piatt gave the opinion of the ma-
jority of the court, (14 John. Rep. 527,) in which Judges
Van Ness and Yates concurred, and Spencer being con-
nected with the respondents, gave no opinion. Chief Jus-
tice Thompson read an opinion in favor of reversing the
decree. All this was in accordance with the regular
course of proceedings in that court. The questions to be
decided were as distinct from party or political ques-
tions, as any questions can be, and yet every senator who
yoted against Mr. Clinton's nomination in caucus, voted
for reversing this judf:;ment; and every one who voted foi
Mr. Clinton in caucus, voted for him on the decision of
this case.

It is true, and I am glad it is true, that there were
questions in this case on which the intelligent and hon-
est might differ; but how thirty-five men should happen
to differ on questions upon which depended the rights
of a distinguished politician, exactly according to their
respective opinions of the merits of that individual, is
marvellous. I am happy to state, that Mr. Van Buren
having been employed as counsel by one of the parties
in a court below, did not vote. It is hardly possible
that precisely this result could have been produced,
unless some of the senators and judges in this case
were influenced by party prejudices, for or against Mr
Clinton.

OF NEW-YORK. 443

The federalists at, and previous to the general election,
acted in accordance with the views they had previously
intimated. They held up no candidate in opposition to
Mr. Clinton. Indeed they went further in their courtesy
towards Mr. Clinton and his friends. In those counties
where the Clintonian republicans held a strong prepon-
derance, although the federal party in such counties was
confessedly in the majority, they made no nomination of
members, for the express purpose of permitting Clintonian
republicans to be elected. Such was the case in the re-
spectable county of Oneida: a county which at that
time was known to contain a large federal majority. The
federalists of Oneida stated that if the republicans would
nominate respectable candidates for the assembly, who
would support the administration of Mr. Clinton, no no-
mination should be made in opposition to them. The re-
publican party in that county did not afford them any just
reason to complain. Among the candidates which they
selected, was that excellent and venerable man, Henry
Huntington; Nathan Williams, who had long been a mem-
ber of congress, and was afterwards judge of the fifth circuit,
and George Brayton, a man universally esteemed and be-
loved. The federalists, however, were careful to place
some of their ablest men in the assembly to watch over
their interest, among whom was Mr. Oakley from Dutch-
ess county.

Mr. Clinton and Mr. Tayler may be said to have
been elected without opposition, for although the Tam-
many men in New- York sent tickets into every county
in the state, on which the name of Peter B. Porter
for governor was printed, no serious effort was made for
his election.

The senators elected this year were Jonathan Day-
ton and Stephen Barnum, from the southern district;

444 POLITICAL HISTORY

Jabez D. Hammond and John Lounsbury, from the
middle; Roger Skinner, Samuel Young and Henry Yates,
from the eastern; and I«aac Wilson and Jediah Prender-
gast, from the western district. They were of course all
republicans.

"■"■rp, cfr/':\

S)a wE"a?is ©SESS'^

or KEw-yoRK. 445

CHAPTER XXIII.

FROM MAY 1, 1817, TO MAY 1, 1818.

In 1815 we saw De Witt Clinton expelled from the
mayoralty of the city of New-York, denounced by the
republican party, in the state and nation, as utterly un-
worthy of confidence, as a sort of political Bohan Upasj
with whom the slightest intercourse would contaminate,
and given over by the federalists as a man upon whose
fortunes they could not hope to rise. Among politicians
" none was so poor as to do him reverence." We now, after
the lapse of only two years, see him selected by a majo-
rity of the republicans of New-York as their first man, and
unanimously elected governor of the Empire State. How
changing, how transitory is the fortune of political men^
in free as well as in despotic governments ! The extremes^
frequently approach near each other. But an unanimous
election, in a representative government, is, to an ambi-
tious man, highly dangerous. That statesman is safest
who stands at the head of a well organized party, which
is opposed by another party nearly equal to it in numeri-
cal strength.*

* It was a deceitful calm ; for a large portion of the democratic party were
deadly hostile to the newly elected governor, and what reliance could be placed
on many of the leading federalists, may be gathered from the following letter,
written by Mr. Coleman to a confidential political friend in Philadelphia, which
accidentally fell into the hands of the editor of the National Advocate. I copy it
as republished in Mr. Coleman's own paper :—

" Extract of a letter from William Coleman, editor of the New-York Evening
Post, to Charles Miner, late one of the editors of the True American, dated Sep-
tember 28, 1816 :—

" Why do you not make a little review of Mr. Stile's pamphlet against Einns,
such a one that we may all re-publish. Generally speaking, I feel disposed, in
common with the leading federalists here, to stand perfectly still, and wait for
events to happen, as Jefferson says, we Ivnow not when. Something may come
from the quarrels of opposite sections of the democratic factions, and I thinic the-
most we can do is occasionally to fern the embers. W. COLEMAN."

446 POLITICAL HISTORY

In pursuance of the law passed the last session, con-
tracts had been made for constructing parts of the canal,
and during the summer of this year that great work was
commenced.

Mr. Clinton convened the council of appointment in
August, and, on the 27th of that month, they removed
John L. Broome from the office of clerk of the city and
county of New-York, and appointed Benjamin Ferris in
his place. They also removed Robert McComb, son of
the celebrated land speculator x^lexander McComb, from
the office of clerk of the circuit, and replaced John W.
Wyman in that office.

I am not aware of any other cause of these removals
than a political one, and I know of no political cause,
except that the incumbents were Tammany men. No
other material movements were made by the council. A
great pressure was made on the governor, by his old
friends who had been turned out of office by the council
of 1815, but he excused himself to them by alleging that
the council would not consent to any thing like a system
of general removals. I shall have occasion, hereafter, to
present my views on the policy which the governor's
New-York friends desired him to pursue, in relation to
removals and appointments.

In the autumn of this year, Gov. Clinton issued a pro-
clamation recommending that Thursday, the 13th Novem-
ber, be observed as a day of thanksgiving and prayer. I
mention the circumstance because Gov. Jay, during his
administration, issued a like proclamation, and attempted
to adopt the custom, which had prevailed in the New-
England states ever since the landing of the pilgrims on
the rock of Plymouth, of setting apart one day in the
year as a day of public thanksgiving. But, after issuing
one proclamation, Mr. Jay found it necessary to abandon
the attempt, it being represented, by his opponents, as a

OF NEW-YORK. 447

contrivance to enlist the religious prejudices of the com-
munity in his favor. The proclamation of Gov. Clinton
was well received, and the precedent furnished by him has
since been followed by all his successors. This, I think,
affords evidence that less apprehension of danger of a
connection between church and state, or religion and poli-
tics, existed in the public mind in 1817 than in 1795.

The legislature met on the 27th of January, 1818, and
David Woods, of Washrngton county, was re-elected
speaker without opposition. He received ninety-seven
votes.

I have now arrived at a period when I became a mem-
ber of the senate, and was an eye and ear witness to many
things which occurred. I hope I may be pardoned in the
statements which I shall make in relation to my own mo-
tives and views. I assure my readers it is not from a
desire to exhibit myself, or my actions, to the public, that
I shall indulge in this sort of detail. My apology for it
is, that I know what my own views and motives were, and
have reason to believe that others similarly situated, with
whom I acted, were governed by the same, or nearly the
same, considerations.

I had early connected myself with the republican party,
and was strongly attached to the principles held by that
party. What little of official distinctions I had enjoyed,
had been bestowed on me by the republican party. I had
viewed the proceedings of the eastern federalists with ab-
horrence; and I heartily disapproved of the conduct of
the New-York federalists, during the war.

As early as the year 1808, 1 had, in the course of my
business, formed a personal acquaintance with Mr. Clin-
ton. I thought well of him as a man and as a statesman.
When he was a candidate for the presidency he received
my cordial support, because I believed that, if elected, he
would prosecute with greater vigor than Mr. Madison, the

448 POLITICAL HISTORY

war against Great Britain. When the presidential con-
test was decided against Mr. Clinton, it, by no means,
diminished my zeal for the vigorous prosecution of the
war, or my ardor in support of the democratic party ia
the state and nation. This, the little circle of my ac-
quaintance who are now in life, well know. I was dis-
satisfied and disgusted with the conduct of Mr. Clinton on
account of his opposition to the election of Gov. Tomp-
kins in 1813; and, for a time," I felt that he had forfeited
the confidence of the democratic party. After the peace,
and in the summer of 1815, when the principal causes of
the controversy between the two great parties no longer
existed, inasmuch as Mr. Clinton manifested a disposition
again to act with the democratic party, I was, I confess,
desirous that he should be restored to their confidence, in
order that the state might avail itself of his talents and
services, as well as from personal respect and friendship
for him. With these impressions, I did what I could to
produce a state of feeling, in the minds of those republi-
cans with whom I communicated, favorable to the resto-
ration of Mr. Clinton, and to his support as governor of
the state, and I fell thankful to Judge Spencer for his
great and successful efforts to produce the same result.
But it was entirely contrary to my wishes, and at war
with my judgment, to form any connection with the fede-
ralists, as a party. Not that I desired to persecute or
even proscribe them. I hailed the era of good feeling
which they announced,asadding, as well to the reputation
of the country, as the happiness arising from social inter-
course, and I hoped the time would soon arrive when the
state, in accordance with the feelings of the republican
party, could avail itself of the official services of individual
federalists. At the period of which I am speaking, when
I first became a member of the senate, I was entirely igno-
rant of what we call New- York politics. For Governor

OF KEW-YORK, 449

Tompkins I had great respect. Mr. Van Buren, Mr.
Young, and Mr. Skinner, 1 had long known, and highly
esteemed. True, they had differed in opinion with me,
respecting the propriety of selecting Mr. Clinton as the
gubernatorial candidatej but what was that 1 They had
quite as good a right to their opinions as I had to mine,
and might, very probably, be right, and I wrong. It was
a difference of opinion about the merits of an individual,
not a difference of principle in relation to measures. The
circumstance of this trifling difference produced, in my
mind, no anxiety. I commenced acting with them with
feelings the most cordial. My determination was to give
Mr. Clinton a fair and honest support, in all measures
which my judgment did not condemn, and if, at the end
of his term, it should appear that his services were not
acceptable to the majority of the republican party, then to
select another man for governor; and, as he had been
nominated and elected in pursuance of the usages of the
republican party, as governor of the state, I supposed such
were the views of Mr. Van Buren, and those who had
acted with him in opposing the nomination of Mr. Clinton.
A very few days residence in Albany, and attendance in
the senate, convinced me of my error. I found, on one
hand, that the governor was cold, if not vindictive, to-
wards Mr. Van Buren and others, who had opposed his
elevation, and on the other, a determination to excite pre-
judices and jealousies against the governor, to render him
unpopular with the republican members of the legislature,
to embarrass him in the discharge of his executive duties,
and thwart him in his measures.

The governor, in his first speech, presented a very clear
and able view of the financial condition of the state; he
recommended several important improvements in our mu-
nicipal laW'S, among which was the abolition of the divi-
sion of the state into districts, for the purpose of criminal

29

450 POLITICAL HISTORY

prosecutions, and the appointment of an attorney for the
people in each district; and he advised, in lieu of this
system, the appointment of an attorney for the people in
each county. He suggested other measures of judicial
reform, and he eulogized the canal policy, and gave a
very flattering account of the progress already made in the
construction of the canals. The speech was well received
by the public and generally approved.

The members of the assembly from the city of New-
York were from the hot bed of Tammany Hall. All of
them, with the single exception of CadwalladerD. Golden,
were open and bitter in their denunciations of the gover-
nor, and the system of internal improvements, at the head
of which he stood, and with which he w^as identified.
They predicted, with confidence, the utter failure of the
system, and with it, the serious embarrasment and dis-
grace, if not the ruin of the state. They claimed that
the reputation of Mr. Clinton was staked on the fate
of this system, and they professed their willingness to
abide the result. The friends of Mr. Clinton did not
hesitate to join in the issue which they tendered. The
principal and most zealous members of the New-York
delegation, were Ogden Edwards, son of the celebrated
Pierpont Edwards, and now a judge of the first circuit,
Peter Sharpe and Michael Ulshoeffer. In their train fol-
lowed Isaac Pierson, Henry Meigs and Clarkson Crolius,
also from New-York, and, I regret to add, that Gen.Erastus
Root, then likewise a member from Delaware, was equally
bitter in his denunciations against the governor and the
canal policy.

I have said the New-York members emanated from
Tammany Hall. There was an order of the Tammany
Society who wore in their hats as an insignia, on certain
occasions, a portion of the tail of the deer. They were a
leading order, and from this circumstance the friends of

OF NEW- YORK. 451

Mr. Clinton gave those who adopted the views of the
members of the Tammany Society, in relation to him, the
name of Bucktails; which name was eventually applied
to their friends and supporters in the country. Hence,
the party opposed to the administration of Mr. Clinton,
were, for a long time, called the Bucktail Party.

When the senate came together, the members of it, in
respect to their political views, may be divided into four
classes. The first, and most numerous class, were deter-
mined, at any rate, to get rid of Mr. Clinton; the second,
were equally determined to support him; the third, were
"wavering in their opinions and views; the fourth, were
federalists.

The first class consisted of- — Van Buren, Livingston,
Skinner, Young, Cantine, Bowne, Barnum, Crosby, Dit-
mis, Knox, Dayton, Ogden and Seymour — thirteen. The
second class — Bates, Hart, Hammond, Lounsbury, J. I.
Prendergast, Jed. Prendergast and Ross — seven. The
third class — Yates, Noyes, Swart, Wilson, Bicknell, Swift
and Mallory — seven. The fourth class — Van Vechten,
Tibbits, Allen, Hascal and Frey — five.

At the first glance it will be perceived, that of the
twenty-seven republican members of the senate, the bal-
ance, not only of numbers, but of talent, was decidedly in
favor of the Bucktails. Of the unsettled and doubtful
members in the third class, with the exception of Mr.
Yates, who was a sound minded and respectable lawyer,
there was not an individual who claimed much talents as
a legislator. In the second class there was an almost
equal defect of talent, and more especially of party tact
and address. Mr. Bates was a shrewd, sensible yankee.
As a county politician, he undoubtedly possessed some
efficiency; but his mind had never been enlarged and cul-
tivated by education, and he was narrow and selfish in his
views and' principles of action. He was bitterly hostile

452 POLITTCAl HISTORY

to Mr. Van Buren, for wliat particular cause I know notj
and was much governed, in his political action, by the
impulses of feeling, and of personal likings and dislikings.
Mr. Hart was an enterprising country merchant from
Oneida county, and had acquired a considerable estate.
He was ardent in his feelings, warm in his friendships,
and much influenced by his pecuniary interests. He was
an ardent supporter of the canal policy, and therefore a
warm friend to the governor. His prejudices against the
federalists were deep and bitter, and he was equally hos-
tile against Mr. Van Buren. He was, in my judgment,
quite incapable of forming any system of political action
on a basis broad enough to lead to the formation, or even
to secure the preservation of a party. His great anxiety
appeared to be, to guard and promote the interest of the
Utica Bank, in which he was a large stockholder, and toi
provide for the completion of the Erie canal. As a party
man he acted without system, and sometimes apparently
without any rational motive.*

* As an evidence of Mr. Hart's utter want of political tact, as well as of his
rashness as a legislator, I give the following case : —

William L. Stone, now, and for a long time heretofore, the distinguished and
able editor of the Commercial Advertiser of New- York, was then the conductor
of the Albany Daily Advertiser, a leading federal piper. It was known to us all,
that Col Stone, although a federalist, was a decided friend to Gov. Clinton, and
was determined, when he could do so with effect, to devote his paper to his sup-
port. There was, at that time, as there had been before and has since been, many
persons in attendance on the legislature as agents to procure charters for bank-
ing and other companies. Mr. Sbarpe, of New- York, and several other Eucktail
members, took it into their heads to deliver several severe philippics against the
lobby, expressing their suspicions that these agents would attempt to corrupt the
members of the legislature. Mr. James O. Morse, a respectable lawyer from Ot-
sego county, since first judge of that county, a keen, sarcastic writer, and who
himself occasionally visited Albany for the purpose of procuring a charter for the
Central Bank, wroie a communication tending to ridicule Mr. Sharpe and others,
on account of the apprehensions they affected to entertainof the danger of bribery
and corruption by the lobby. Mr. Morse, among other things, proposed, in his
communication, that a wall should be erected around the capitol, so strong and
high as to secure Mr. Sharpe and his friends from the apprehended danger of an
attack from the lobby. This article appeared in Col. Stone's paper. The sugges-
tion I have mentioned, was the most offensive part of it.

Col. Stone usually attended the Senate to report the proceedings of that body

OF NEW-YORK. 453

The two Prendergasts were brothers, and both bred
physicians, upright and good men, but neither of them
well calculated to effect much in a legislative body. Of
Mr. Ross I have formerly spoken. He had, for many
years, followed the lead of Judge Spencer; had floated
along with the republican party, and when all his political
action, in the legislature, was sustained by the power of a
great, and "generally a triumphant party, he seemed to
move on smoothly; but the present was quite a new
scene, and he was entirely inadequate to act the part,
■which, from his long standing in the legislature, naturally
devolved upon him. Mr. Lounsbury was an highly up-
right and worthy practical farmer, a man of sou^d mind
and good judgment, but incapable of acting \vith much
effect as a legislator or member of a party.

With regard to myself, it is scarcely necessary for me
to say, that my want of political experience and a knowl
edge of the character and motives of the men around me;
my utter defect of talent in extemporary debate; and my
want of confidence in myself, rendered me almost, if not
quite, useless to the party with whom I wished to act.

Of Mr. Van Buren, who stands at the head of the cata-
logue of the first class, it is unnecessary to speak. He

for his own paper. Mr. Han was pleased to consider this good natured para-
graph, intended to take off some of the leading Bucktails of the assemblv, as a
contempt of the senate, and forthwith moved a resolution that William L. Stone
be excluded from the bar of the senate. Mr. H. soon found that such a resolution
would not be approved by the senate, and therefore requested that it might lay on
the table ; but, at the instance of Col. Stone, Mr. P. R. Livingston, soon after-
wards, highly to his credit, called for the consideration of the resolution, and Mr
Stone, though he declined disclosing the name of the author of this treasonable
article, having assured the president of the senate that he did not intend, by its
publication, to treat either branch of the legislature disrespectfully, it was unani'
mously decided that no further proceedings should be had in the matter.

Here, was a causeless attack made upon a respectable newspaper editor; in
principle wrong, because its tendency was to abridge the liberty of the press, and
also to convert a friend into an enemy, with no other object than to gratify the
personal pique of the mover. Could a political party hope to sustain itself,
■whose leaders were so void of any thing like policy, so inconsiderate, and so
reckless of consequences.

454 POLITICAL HISTORY

had then been four years a leading member of the senate.
His splendid talents, and great political tact, are too well
known to require description.

Mr. Young's character is now well known, and his
great talents universally admitted. I may, however, be
allowed to say, that I think Mr. Young a perfectly honest
man. His defect, as a politician, is, that he is too vindic-
tive* in his feelings towards his opponents. He investi-
gates a question ably, and he arrives at his conclusions
logically, clearly and honestly; but then, if you still resist
the conclusion to which he has arrived, he is too apt to
pronounce, in effect, that you are either a fool or a knave,
and he honestly believes you are so. The reason is, that
he himself thinks he sees clearly, and knows he forms his
opinions with perfect integrity. The necessary result is,
that he doubts either the sincerity or the ability of the
man with whom he differs. He does not suspect the cer-
tainty of the correctness of his own judgment, so much as
all men ought, and he does not make allowance enough
for the weakness and imperfection of other men. Hence
Mr. Young, though an honest man and a great man, can
never be a popular man.

Roger Skinner was a man pleasing in his address; his
talents were rather of the persuasive than solid kind, and,
as a companion, he was quite agreeable. He was fond of
political management, and rather reckless as to the means
he employed to accomplish his ends. He was said to be
bitter in his feelings as a partizan. If such was the fact,
the evidence of it did not come within my observation.
I thought him naturally kind and obliging. He was, un-
doubtedly, very bitter in his feelings against Gov. Clinton
personally. To what particular cause this was owing, I
was never informed. Probably the governor had given
him oifence individually.

• See Note A. vol. a, p. 639,

OF NEW-YORK. 455

Walter Bowne had formerly been a businessman, and
was now a man of wealth; shrewd and sagacious as a
partizan, but generally courteous in his manner. He, too,
was extremely bitter in his hostility to the governor. To
me it seemed strange that a man of his general acquain-
tance with life, and with public men, could be so violent
in his animosity against any individual, merely because he
was opposed to his political advancement.

Peter R. Livingston came into the senate with all the
prejudices of his family against the Clintons. Indeed,
those prejudices seemed to be all concentrated in him.
He was a man of fine fancy and great declamatory pow-
ers. Few men could address a popular assembly with
more effect than Mr. Livingston. His usefulness, as a
legislator, was impaired by a lack of industry and labori-
ous attention to the details of business.

Moses I. Cantine, a respectable lawyer from Catskill,
was the brother-in-law of Mr. Van Buren. Frank, gene-
rous and kind in his social intercourse, no man could per-
sonally dislike him. Though a zealous partizan, the
kindness of his nature rendered him incapable of bitter-
ness. His talents, if not great, were at least respectable.

Henry Seymour was a country merchant from the
county of Onondaga. He was a well bred man, and very
gentlemanly in his deportment. His great native shrewd-
ness and sagacity had been improved and highly cultivated
by an association with genteel society. As a politician,
he was cautious and wary. His opponents charged him
with being Jesuitical, but of this I cannot speak from my
own knowledge; for he certainly never gave me any
proofs of a want of sincerity and candor. I do not think
his opposition to Gov. Clinton originated from personal
motives. I am inclined to believe that the apprehension
that Mr. Clinton's policy, if sustained, would endanger

456 POLITICAL HISTORY

the republican party, and his attachment personally to
Mr. Van Buren, controlled him in his political action.

Isaac Ogden, of Delaware, was a man of strong and
vigorous intellect, and of great decision of character. He,
too, for some cause unknown to me, seemed personally
vindictive against the governor.

The residue of the gentlemen of the first class were
mere voters who always followed their file leaders.

With respect to the federalists, who constituted the
fourth class, I remark briefly that Messrs. Allen, Hascal
and Frey were upright, honest, and honorable men. They
were disposed to give Mr. Clinton's administration an
honest and honorable support, because they thought it
tended to advance the prosperity of the state. Mr. Allen
was an excellent lawyer; and a more pure and scrupulously
honest man than Ralph Hascal, never lived.

That Mr. George Tibbits was a man of profound sa-
gacity, is well known. His knowledge, acquired during
a long and successful life devoted to mercantile, commer-
cial and banking business, rendered him an useful member
of the senate; but his habits of traffic, which he had ac-
quired in business, or some other cause, rendered him
inclined to trade, as a politician. He was desirous of
receiving a " consideration " for all his political acts. He
considered the prospects of the federal party to be pros-
trated, and he was, therefore, disposed to make the most
of his present position, and was quite indifferent whether
it was the Clintonians or Bucktails with whom he nego-
tiated. [See JVote A. Vol. 2. p. 541.]

Of the talents of Abraham Van Vechten I need not
speak. They are universally admitted to be great. Asa
legislator, he possessed one characteristic which proved
him to be a genuine descendant and true representative of
the Low Dutch. He had an instinctive horror at all inno-
vations, and at every thing which was new. What never

OF NEW-YORK. 457

had been done, he seemed to think ought never to be done.
In politics he was the very impersonation of ancient fede-
ralism. He could not look on any man with favor, who,
in the good times of John Jay, was in the ranks of the
opposition, or who had subsequently attached himself to
the party which opposed that great and good man. He
looked upon De Witt Clinton, Ambrose Spencer, D. D.
Tompkins, Smith Thompson and Martin Van Buren as in
pari delicto^ and seemed like Queen Margaret, in the play
of Richard the Third, to rejoice when one was destroyed
by the other.

I must be permitted to add, that those who knew Mr.
Van Vechten alleged, and I believe with truth, that with
all his great qualities, he was, notwithstanding, a cunning
man, and was occasionally addicted to intrigue; and that
he frequently attempted, by plotting, to circumvent rivals
among his own political friends, as well as to thwart the
views of his opponents.

Mr. Van Buren, of course, felt a deep interest in the
choice of the council of appointment. His object would
not be accomplished if men were placed in the council, a
majority of whom were decidedly hostile to the governor.
In that case the public would impute all the errors which
might be committed, to the council, and judge of the ex-
ecutive by his speeches. Nor was he willing that Mr.
Clinton should have a council which would accord with
him in all his views, and be subservient to his wishes.
It would, he thought, be more desirable to form a council
which the governor could not control, but for whose acts
the public would hold him responsible. In other words,
Mr. Van Buren wished to create a council which should
be nominally Clintonian, but which, at the same time,
should be really hostile to the governor. Partly by man-
agement, and partly by accident, a council, of the charac-
ter last described, was actually chosen.

458 POLITICAL HISTORY

Before the legislature met, it was intimated to me that
it was desired that I should be a member of the council;
but I peremptorily declined. I knew enough then of the
political history of the state, to be convinced that the sta-
tion was one which generally incurred much odium. I
felt that I was ignorant of the real standing and character
of most of the active political men in the state, and that,
before attempting to occupy a position which would call
attention to me, it would be desirable that I should ac-
quire some character for usefulness as a legislator. But
soon after I arrived in Albany, I found that there was an
almost universal inclination, on the part of the governor's
friends, that I should be in the council; but from an inter-
terview between Wm. C. Bouck, a member of the assem-
bly from Schoharie, and myself, which I perceived was
caused by Mr. Van Buren, I became satisfied that he pre-
ferred some other senator from the middle district; al-
though Mr. Bouck did not even mention his name. In a
short time, however, I ascertained that I could not refuse
without offending many of my best friends, and I therefore
consented.

The members of the council were, at that time, desig-
nated by a caucus of the republican members of assembly
from each senatorial district. In the southern district,
which was represented in the assembly almost wholly
by Bucktails, Peter R. Livingston was nominated, I be-
lieve, without opposition; and in the eastern, Henry Yates,
who was the only professed republican Clintonian from
that district, was selected.

In the western district a large majority of the republi-
can members were sincere friends of the governor, and
desired that a council o^ appointment should be formed
who would pursue all reasonable measures to sustain him;
but, unfortunately, the two most prominent Clintonian
senators from that district, Mr. Bates and Mr. Hart, were

OF NEW-YORK. 459

candidates for the nomination. Both were ardent, and
both were extremely imprudent, and reckless of the conse-
quences which might result to the state administration
from their collisions. I speak from conjecture, but I do
not doubt the fact, that the friends and agents of Mr. Van
Euren did what they could to widen the breach, and
heighten the contest between Bates and Hart.

There were a few Bucktail members of assembly from
the western district. These gentlemen, in the caucus
held by the members from that district, supported Henry
Seymour, and some, if not all, the friends of Bates, out of
mere resentment against Hart and the Utica Bank, which,
it was said, had been busy in this affair, voted for Seymour,
and he was nominated. Messrs. Livingston, Yates, Sey-
mour, and myself, were the next day chosen, in pursuance
of the decrees of these sub-caucussers.*

I have reason to believe that it had been given out, by
some of the Bucktail leaders, that, in case Mr. Clinton
should not be the next republican candidate. Judge Yates
would be selected, and that those outgivings had been
communicated to Mr. Henry Yates, who was a brother of
the judge. It is proper to add, however, that I do not
know the fact, and state it as conjecture merely. Be that
as it may, subsequent events proved that Mr. Yates be-
came opposed to Mr. Clinton. Before I go further, it is
my duty to say, and I take pleasure in saying it, that
Henry Yates was strictly an honest and honorable man.
In all my communications with him I never found him
guilty of the least evasion or prevarication. But, never-
theless, his mind may have been biased when he himself
was not aware of it.

* It was stated to me by the late Judge W. P.Vati Ness, that the moment the
council was chosen, Mr. Van Buren wrote to his friend in Columbia countfi th«
following brief letter : —

"All is safe. Seymour! Seymour! Seymour!"

460 POLITICAL HISTORY

Here, then, was a council organized, consisting of Mr.
Livingston, who was open and virulent in his opposition;
of Mr. Seymour, who was equally resolved in his hostility,
but wary, smooth, and apparently moderate in his action;
and Mr. Yates, a professed Clintonian, but, undoubtedly,
considerably influenced by his brother, the judge, now
openly in the opposition; Mr. Henry Yates unreservedly
declaring himself opposed to Judge Spencer, or what he
called the dictation of Mr. Spencer.

Immediately after the council was chosen and before its
first meeting, Mr. Yates stated to me that John Van
Ness Yates, who was his distant relative, had been un-
justly removed through the influence of Judge Spencer,
from the office of recorder of Albany; that he wished
forthwith to correct the error by the removal of Mr.
Parker, and re-appointment of Mr. Yates; that Mr. Liv-
ingston would vote with him on that question, but Mr-
Seymour would not, as he had committed himself to
vote against all removals except for official misconduct.
To this 1 replied, that although the office was of little
importance, and although I was satisfied that the removal
of the late incumbent was wrong, the case was peculiar,
and I was not prepared to act in accordance with his
request — that the agency Judge Spencer had had in the
removal of Mr. Yates, and the connection existing be-
tween him and Mr. Parker, would render the removal
of the latter a declaration of war against the Judge,
which considering the very great obligations he had con-
ferred on Mr. Clinton and his friends, by his efficient
and successful eff'orts in procuring his nomination, would
be an act not only unjust, but would stamp with the
yilest ingratitude, the governor and all those who pro-
fessed to be his friends. This reply was not at all
satisfactory to Mr. Yates, and in various conversations
with me he finally intimated that unless this outrage

OF NEW- YORK. 461

was repaired, he could not lend his aid in the votes he
should give in the council to the friends of Mr. Clin-
ton. Eventually I assured Mr. Y. that although I could
not and would not vote for the removal of Parker; before
the council was dissolved, I would aid him with my vote
in making some suitable provison for his friend; and
with this assurance he was satisfied. I mention this lit-
tle incident, to show by what means the current of the
state patronage, while it was distributed by the council
of appointment, was directed or changed. I was wrong.
I should have declined any negotiation, and disclaimed
all responsiblity in respect to the doings of a majority
of the council. That course would have relieved me
from much anxiety and vexation, and in the end would
have been better for Mr. Clinton.

I had been but a few days in the senate, before I
perceived that although there was a nominal majority
in that body favorable to the governor, the real majo-
rity Avas against him, and I could not but forsee that
the consequence would be, to the executive, seriously
embarrassing. I communicated my views to the govern-
or, which he affected to treat with great indifference, and
urged that I was mistaken in the canvass I had made. I
further stated to him that the preponderance of talent
among the republicans was decidedly unfavorable to him^
and that he had not a single friend there who was suita-
ble for the leader of a party. Shortly afterwards I had
reason to suspect that jealousies were taking root between
Mr. Van Buren and Col. Young; and I thought that
circumstance afforded a favorable opportunity to make
an effort to gain one of them; and as Col. Young was
identified with the governor in the canal policy, and as
canal commissioner, was his colleague, it struck me that
he would be the most natural ally. Senator Hart waSy
as he assured me, in habits of familiar intercourse with

462 POLITICAL HISTORY

Col. Y.J and I requested him to ascertain whether a
good and friendly communicaion could not be established
between the governor and Mr. Young. From Mr. Hart
1 soon learned that Col. Young did not object to act
with Mr. Clinton if he could be satisfied that the go-
vernor would pursue a republican coursej and if some
trifling personal difficulties could be explained and re-
moved. I forthwith called on Mr. Clinton and commu-
nicated to him these facts, but I found him indifferent,
and disinclined to aid in carrying into effect the pro-
ject I had so much at heart, and which I deemed highly
important.

From that moment my confidence in Gov. Clinton, as
a good practical politician, in a popular government, was
gone. I have never regained it. However noble and
magnificent were his ends, he failed in providing the
means for their accomplishment.

Not many days passed before any difficulties which
might have existed between Mr. Van Buren and Mr.
Young, were removed, and a fixed, well compacted and
organized majority against the governor was formed in
the senate. In the progress of the session, procoedings
were had, which exhibited that majority in such a man-
ner as to remove all doubt. In proof of this position,
I give the following case:

In the Western district, at the election in April, 1817,
two senators were to be chosen; one to supply the place
of a deceased senator from that district, who in 1816
died, one year before" the expiration of his term, and the
other for the term of four years. Doct. Jediah Pren-
dergast and Isaac Wilson were nominated, and at the time
of the nomination it was understood that Prendergast
was the candidate for the four years term and Wilson
for the one year. By law, in a case like this, the can-
didate who had the greatest number of votes was de-

OF NEW-YORK. 463

clared elected for the longest term. A dispute arose be-
tween those candidates, and the question was, which of
them was entitled to a seat for the four years. The
following were the undisputed facts as reported by Mr.
Frey, chairman of the committee of elections.

There were given at the election, for Isaac Wilson
fifteen thousand and nine votes. For Jediah Prendergast,
fourteen thousand nine hundred and eighty-five, and for
Jedediah Prendergast, ninety-one, and Jed. Prendergast
ten votes. The canvassers delivered the certificate for
four years, to Mr. Wilson. It was proved by the oath
of forty-two electors, to the satisfaction of the committee,
that they had voted for Jedediah Prendergast, intending
Jediah Prendergast. These forty-two votes, independent
of the remaining fifty-nine, would have given Doct.
Prendergast a majority of eighteen over Wilson. The
committee further reported that it was not alleged by Mr.
Wilson that there was any man in the district who bore
the name of Jedediah Prendergast. The committee there-
fore reported that Mr. Prendergast was entitled to a
seat for the term of four years. It would seem to me
that no man capable in the plainest cases of distinguish-
ing between right and wrong, could differ with the com-
mittee in the conclusions to which they arrived. But
there was one fact in the case which the committee did
not report, and that was, that Prendergast was a sup-
porter, and Wilson, by this time had become an oppo-
nent, of the governor.

Col. Young, whom I have said, and again repeat, is
an honest man, (but what mind is proof against the
bias created by political prejudice and interest,) grave-
ly made an argument in favor of the right of Wilson to
the seat for four years. He produced the bible, and in
it found both the names of Jedediah and Jediah, and
thence inferred that he had sustained the position for which

464 POLITICAL IIISTOKY

he contended! It would have been more creditable to
him and his friends to have voted without arguing.
The four years seat was assigned to Mr. Wilson, by a
vote of thirteen to eleven.

As an act of justice to the minority, I give the names
of those who voted:

For Wilson — Barnum, Cantine, Crosby, Dayton, Dit-
mis, Knox, Livington, Ogden, Seymour, Skinner, Van
Buren, Yates,* Young, — thirteen.

For Prendergast — Bates, Bowne, Frey, Hammond,
Hascal, Lounsbury, Noyes, Ross, Swart, Tibbits, Van
Vechten — eleven.

The two Prendergasts and Wilson did not vote. The
absentees were Allen, Swift, Hart, Mallory and Bicknel.
It will be seen, with the exception of Mr. Bowne, (an
exception highly honorable to him,) that it was a com-
plete party vote. From Mr. Van Buren and Col. Young,
at any rate better things ought to have been anticipated.
Doct. Prendergast from that day became and was a
zealous Bucktail! I leave it to the philosophical inquirer
into the action of the human mind to account for his
conversion.

The procedings of the council were, as may well be
anticipated, when the materials of which it was com-
posed are considered, bungling, awkward and inconsis-
tent. In almost all cases my individual views were
thwarted. Something was always proposed by one of
the members with whom I acted; which though perhaps,
not absolutely bad, was by no means so good in my
judgment, as might have been done. I of course yield-
ed, to prevent something worse. I do not recollect of
but one prominent appointment which I proposed, which
was made; and that was the appointment of C. D. Col-
den mayor of New- York. The members from the city

* Which way Mr. Yates leaned may be learned from this votB.

ov NEw-yoRK. 465

had recommended Col. Paulding, and he was of course
supported by Messrs. Livingston and Seymour. The
governor was in favor of Sylvanus Miller. I first pro-
posed Mr. Golden to Mr. Yates, who was generally in-
clined to cross the views of the governor, though he
wished to avoid the appearance of opposition, or rather he
declined (for he was incapable of deception,) placing
himself in an attitude of direct hostility to the governor.
The policy, or perhaps I ought to say feelings of Mr.
Yates, placed Gov. Clinton in the precise condition which
Mr. Van Buren desired. He was so situated as in the
view of his friends and the public, to be held responsi-
ble for all the appointments, many of which were not
his. but submitted to by him to avoid a worse course
by the council. But I am wandering from my subject.
I informed Mr. Yates that the Governor desired the
appointment of Mr. Miller, upon which he readily com-
mitted himself in favor of Colden. I went immediately
into the council and nominated Colden. As I anticipa-
ted, either Livingston or Seymour nominated Paulding,
which reduced the governor to the necessity of deciding
between the two. He of course voted for Colden, and
he was appointed.

Gov. Clinton like Gov. Lewis, was extremely timid
in relation to the appointment of federalists. Mr. Yates
was also averse to the appointment of any individuals
belonging to that class of politicians. I give one in-
stance. I had accidentally become acquainted with John
C. Hamilton, son of the celebrated General Hamilton,
and the talented author of his biography now being pub-
lished. I ascertained that the little office of commissioner
of deeds would be agreeable to him, and proposed his ap-
pointment to that office, to the governor; as well in testi-
mony of respect to the memory of one of the greatest men
that ever lived in this country, as a mark of attention to a

30

466 POLITICAL HISTORY

young man of fair character and promising talents; and
it was with some difficulty that I procured this petty ap-
pointment, because John C. Hamilton was supposed to be
a federalist.

The old friends of the governor in New-York, who had
been ejected from office because of their attachment to
Clinton, such as P. C. Van Wyck, Garrit Gilbert and
others, who claimed that provision should be made for
them, were extremely pressing, in urging the removal of
the bucktail incumbents to make place for them.

For myself, I considered the New-York bucktails as
having formed an organized opposition to the state ad
ministration, and as political opponents to the democratic
party in the state, which I insisted was represented by
Gov. Clinton astheir chief; and according to the common
law of party, as then established, I thought we had the
right, and that it was our duty to make war on them, as
a faction, who, like the Burr and Lewis faction, were op-
posed to the great republican party in the state. But I
should have preferred some other appointments than those
which were recommended by the governor. They con-
sisted of a little handful of old friends, who, from some
cause, it may be, without any fault of theirs, had become
odious to the great mass of community, whether, consist-
ing of federalists or democrats. I should have preferred
to have taken now and then a federalist of influence and
personal popularity, and to have christened him a demo-
crat, and to have gone into the ranks of the bucktails and
selected some of them^ but precisely the men whom the
leaders of the faction disliked, as was done in the case of
Golden, who was at the time a bucktail member from
the city. This policy did not accord either with the
yiews of Mr. Clinton or Mr. Yates, who of course pre-
vailed, and the old friends of Mr. Clinton were generally
restored to office.

OF NEW-YORK. 467

Mr. Josiah Ogclen Hoffman, who had been a distinguish-
ed federalist, as appears from what I have before related,
now claimed to be an ardent friend of Mr. Clinton, and
he and his friends pressed hard upon the council for the
removal of Richard Riker as recorder, and his appoint-
ment as the successor; but to this Mr. Yates positively
refused his consent, and the application of course failed.
A combination of republicans in Rensselaer county,
headed by William L. Marcy, our late governor, then re-
corder of Troy, was formed, who acted in concert with
Mr. Van Buren. An application, strongly urged, was
made to the council from that county for the removal of
such of those men as held office, and especially Mr. Mar-
cy. These men did not come within the description of
the New-York bucktails. They occupied the same poli-
tical attitude as Van Buren, who as yet supported regular
nominations, whether the persons nominated were for
or against Mr. Clinton. I therefore refused to con-
sent to the removal of Mr. Marcy, or any of his friends
in like manner, as I had refused to consent to the removal
of Mr. Van Buren from the office of attorney general.
At the ensuing April election, however, the county con-
vention, having, as I was informed, nominated Clintonian
republicans, Mr. Marcy and his friends got up a bucktail
set of candidates, and supported them at the polls of elec-
tion in opposition to the regular republican ticket; by
which means, I believe, federal members of assembly
were returned from that county. At the June session of
the council, therefore, in conformity with the principle of
action I had adopted, I voted for the removal of Mr.
Marcy and his other friends, and they were removed ac-
cordingly.

How inconsistent was the conduct of these men. The
sole ground alleged for their opposition to Mr. Clinton
was, that he was extending too much favor to, and there-

468 POLITICAL HISTORY

by strengthening the federal party; but here they opposed
republican candidates when they must have known that
the effect of that oppostion would be to procure a federal
representation from the county of Rensselaer. But this in-
consistency was not confined to them. In several counties
of the state, — as for instance in the county of Chenango,
where General German was elected in opposition to a re-
gular republican nominationj by uniting with the federal-
ists,— the conduct of the Clintonian republicans was as in-
consistent with their professions as that of the Rensselaer
county bucktails. Indeed it cannot be denied that Mr.
Clinton encouraged irregular nominations.

Before the adjournment of the council, it was agreed
between Messrs. Yates, Livingston and Seymour, to remove
Doct. Cooper from the office of secretary of state. I was
apprised of it, and although I stated that I should vote
against the measure, there were, I confess, two considera-
tions which induced me to look upon it with indifference.
The one was, the improper manner in which he came into
the office, and the other, that it enabled me to redeem the
the pledge I had given to Mr. Yates to make some provi-
sion for J. V. N. Yates.

Mr. Livingston accordingly at the next meeting of the
council, in the presence of the secretary, made a violent
attack upon him, and upon the means by which his appoint-
ment was obtained, and offered a resolution for his remo-
val, which was carried by the votes of Messrs. Living-
ston, Yates and Seymour. I voted against it and the go-
vernor entered his protest against the measure; repel-
ling in a spirited manner, the animadversions made by Mr.
Livingston on the conduct of Gov. Tayler. After the
removal of Mr. Cooper, upon my nomination, John Van
Ness Yates was appointed. In many respects Mr. Yntes
was peculiarly fitted for this office. He was a man of
fine literary taste, of ready resources of mind, possessing

OF NEW-YORK. 469

brilliant if not profound talents, and capable of doing much
within the shortest possible period of time.*

During this session, Mr. Edwards of New-York, brought
a bill into the assembly for calling a state convention for
considering such parts of the constitution as relate to the
appointment of officers. His object was to abolish the
council of appointment, and provide for the appointment
of officers in some other way. I advised the governor and
his friends to support this project; and to enlarge the
powers of the convention in such manner that they should
also have the right to consider the propriety of altering
and extending the right of suffiage. All men had be-
come disgusted with the appointing power, under the old
constitution, and so universal was the opinion that a
change ought to be made, that I was satisfied that the
council of appointment could not much longer form a
part of our governmental machinery. The right of suf-
frage, too, was more restricted in this state than in any
other of the northern or middle states; and I was satisfied
that public opinion, in a state so highly democratic, would
not much longer endure the restriction. I told the go-
vernor that the project would eventually succeed, and that
he had better seize upon it then, while in one branch of
the legislature at least, we had the power of controlling
and keeping within due bounds action upon the question;
but neither he nor his friends would listen to me. The
scheme was started by a New-York Bucktail, and that it-
self seemed good cause of opposition to it. Indeed, Gov.
Clinton and his friends vainly hoping that they should be
able to control the council of appointment, seemed anx-
ious for retaining it. The proposition of Mr. Edwards,

* This council cannot be charged, when compared with other councils, with
illiberality towards the Bucktail party. They appointed many of their open and
avowed opponents, among whom none was more so than General Root, and he
was appointed district attorney for the county of Delaware. John Savage was
also appointed district attorney of thf county of Washington. Note F.

470 POLITICAL HISTORY

although supported by him with the most ardent and
honest zeal, and by able and unanswerable arguments, was
rejected in the assembly.

The term of service in the senate, of Mr. Ross and Mr.
Cantine from the middle district, would expire during this
year; and their successors were to be chosen at the an-
nual election in April. There is no doubt but that at that
time, a large majority of the electors of that district were
Clintonians, but by adroit management, such arrangements
were made as resulted in the election of one Clintonian
and one Bucktail. Mr. Cantine was not a candidate for
re-election, but Mr. Ross and his friends were extremely
anxious that he should be again returned. It was con-
ceded by all that one of the candidates should be taken
from the county of Orange, w^here Mr. Ross resided, but
there was a dispute whether the other candidates should be
taken from the county of Otsego or the county of Greene.
According to the population of the respective counties, and
the representation each county had enjoyed in the senate,
Otsego, in preference to Greene, was entitled to the mem-
ber. The decision of this question was submitted to a
caucus of the members of the legislature from the middle
district. There would have been little difficulty in deci-
ding this question, had it not been known that Moses Aus-
tin, an avowed Bucktail, had been nominated by the re-
publicans of Greene, and that Arunah Metcalf, a very
.estimable man, but who was equally well known as a
Clintonian, had been designated by the republicans of Ot-
sego county. A majority of the members from the mid-
dle district were Clintonians, and yet a majority of those
members in caucus decided, in effect, that Austin should
be the senatorial candidate. This decision was produced
in the following manner: A Mr. Strong of Orange coun-
ty, had been proposed by some of his friends, as the suc-
cessor of Mr. Ross; and although the members of assero-

OF NEW- YORK. 471

bly from that county were decided Clintonians, they were
from personal and local considerations very desirous, as
I have before stated, that Mr. Ross should be re-elected;
and they feared that in case the Orange county dele-
gation supported the claims of Otsego; Columbia, Dela-
ware and Greene, (Bucktail counties,) would advocate the
election of Strong, and thus the expectations and wishes
of Mr. Ross and his friends would probably be defeated.
Mr. Van Buren very adroitly availed himself of their
fears; and eventually the members from Orange voted in
favor of Greene, which caused the nomination and elec-
tion of Mr. Ross and Mr. Austin. So that instead of
two Clintonians from the middle district we had but one.
Before the middle district convention adjourned, it was
resolved to appoint a committee to draft an address to the
electors of the district, on the subject of the approaching
election. Mr. Van Buren was appointed chairman of
' that committee. Another person agreeing with him in
political views, and myself, were of that committee. He
drew an address, in which he reviewed the political con-
test between the two parties during the late war, and most
soundly abused our old political opponents. The poor
federalists, who were so far from being dangerous, that they
had no idea of opposing our candidates, be they who they
might, very justly might have complained of this treat-
ment as illiberal, if not cruel. But on the part of Mr.
Van Buren, the measure was politic and judicious. If the
Clintonian republicans refused to sign the address, then
it was evidence of what was charged against them," —
a secret understanding with the federalists, — if they signed
it, then the federalists might be told, that they had no
more to expect from one class of the republicans than
from another; for both had joined in the uncalled for de-
nunciations against them. The address eventually was
signed indiscriminately by all the republican members.

472 POLITICAL HISTORY '

In the summer of 1817, Mr. Solomon Southwick, or
rather Mr. Spencer Stafford, the owner, had transferred to
Mr. Israel W. Clark, the Albany Register establishment.

Mr. Clark had formerly printed, at Cooperstown, a re-
publican paper called " The Watch Tower." Though
defective in education, and as a business man not exactly
suited to this world, he was a man of great purity of prin-
ciple and an excellent heart; and he possessed a much
higher grade of talents than the public in general gave
him the credit of possessing. He thought highly of Mr.
Clinton, and was enthusiastic in the support of his pro-
jects of internal improvements. Shortly after he took
possession of the Register, he wrote and published in that
paper, a series of numbers, in which he sustained the
canal policy with great ability. Major Noah who then
edited the National Advocate, the leading Bucktail pa-
per, attacked these numbers with great zeal; and such
was the talent displayed by the author that the Major
charged them to the pen of De Witt Clinton himself.
I am thus particular, in order to do justice to a friend,
not correctly appreciated by the public, whose memory I
still cherish with cordial affection.

The Albany Argus, conducted by Judge Buel, was
considered rather as the organ of Judge Spencer; while
the Register, under the management of Clark, was con-
sidered, more especially as speaking the language of the
governor. This, and the circumstance that Clark desired
to obtain the state printing, and allowed himself to be
flattered by Southwick, who at heart was seeking the
prostration of Mr. Clinton, that the state patronage was
■within his reach, produced a collision between two leading
journals which ought to have acted in cordial union.

Before the annual election in April, all reflecting men
foresaw that a permanent separation would take place
before the next election for governor between the republi-

OF NEW-YORK. 473

cans who supported and those who were opposed to Mr.
Clinton. The question which produced the greatest
anxiety in the minds of politicians was, which party would
retain the greatest number of democrats, or rather, (which
perhaps would be more in accordance with the truth of the
matter,) which party should retain the name of the repub-
lican party. The election neveriheless was attempted to
be conducted in the usual way. The candidates were se-
lected by county and district conventions. In several
counties, however, one or the other section of the demo-
cratic party rebelled against the decrees of these conven-
tions, as in the case of Rensselaer and Chenango counties;
but symptoms of oppugnation were most frequently mani-
fested by the Clintonians. The inclination of an immense
majority of the federal party undoubtedly was, to act
with those whom they deemed to be the real friends of the
governor.

In the western district senatorial convention, Gamaliel
H. Barstow, David E. Evans and Perry G. Childs, were
nominated. They were selected because they were
known to be friends of the governor. Some opposition
on that account was made to them at the election. Mr.
Childs in particular, who was personally unpopular in
consequence of having been rather a grasping lawyer,
was opposed by a respectable farmer by the name of
Paine. He would undoubtedly have lost his elec-
tion, had it not been known that Mr. Paine was in feel-
ing with the Bucktail party, while it was believed Mr.
Childs was a firm friend of the governor. We shall
shortly see with what fidelity Mr. Childs, as well as
Mr. Evans, (personally a very estimable man,) carried
into effect the known wishes of those who elected them.
The legislature adjourned on the 23d of April. The
result of the elections generally were favorable to the
governor.

474 POLITICAL HISTORY

In the city of New-York, it is true, the Bucktail
assembly ticket succeeded by a majority of more than a
thousand, but in the state, a majority of the republican
members of assembly chosen were decided friends of the
governor. Although Mr. Austin was elected from the
middle district, it w^as very evident a majority of the elec-
tors in the state were in favor of Mr. Clinton, and the
eastern and western districts had elected senators with
express reference to that question.

The following are the names of the senators elected: —
from the southern district, Darius Crosby; middle, Wil-
liam Ross and Moses Austin; eastern, George Rosecranth
and Levi Adams; western. Perry G. Childs, Gamaliel H.
Barstow and David E. Evans.

Before concluding this chapter, I must be permitted to
indulge in a few reflections in relation to the political po-
sition of Mr. Clinton; and upon the reasons why many
of the republicans at this early period, manifested symp-
toms of opposition to his administration.

Mr. Clinton had been nominated in 1817, by a majo-
rity of the republican party represented in convention,
upon the solomn assurance of Judge Spencer and his other
friends, that if nominated and elected, he would rigidly
pursue a republican course, and discontinue all connection
between himself and the federalists, if such connection
had existed. An adherence to a republican course, it was,
I presume, well understood, would render it his duty to
distribute the state patronage so far as he had an agency
in its distribution, as his predecessor had done, among the
members of the republican party only. The federalists
thought they were entitled to a portion of the patronage,
and under the administration of Mr. Clinton they no
doubt expected to enjoy it.

Mr. Clinton, when he commenced his administration,
professed his determination to support the republican par-

OP NEW-YORK. 475

ty, but he affected to believe, that the federalists did not
exist as a party. He alleged that there was no difference
of opinion in relation to the measures, and of course there
could not be two parties. He was cold and distant in his
deportment towards Mr. Van Buren, Mr. Young, Mr.
Skinner, and other leading republicans who had opposed
his nomination; and when he spoke of them his language
was calculated to produce unfavorable impressions in rela-
tion to their political views and motives; while he was
known to be in habits of frequent and confidential com-
munication with Judge Van Ness, Judge Piatt and other
leading federalists. Still he was extremely unwilling to
appoint federalists to office. Judge Van Ness used to
apologize to his friends who solicited appointrhents, in the
best manner he could; and was known to have entreated
them to wait for a short time, and " until Mr. Cliiiton
should get fairly into the saddle.''''

Was it unreasonable to expect that this conduct of the
governor and the declarations made by leading federalists
of the tenor of what I have quoted, would not excite the
jealousy of the republicans, and alarm those of them who
had but recently emerged from the tremendous contest
with that party during the late war 7

But in truth the federalists as a party, were neither dis-
banded nor annihilated. It is true, the glitter and blaze
of their watch fires were not visible, but they were smoth
ered, — not extinguished. The " embers'''' remained and
there were not wanting many, who like Mr. Coleman,
•were ready to fan them into a flame. It was, therefore, a
vain attempt of Mr. Clinton, when he sought to acquire
and retain the confidence of both parties. He should
either have adhered strictly to the usages and discipline
of the republican party, or he should have openly or pub-
licly declared that he disclaimed all connection with any
party and that his selections to office should be made

476 POLITICAL HISTORY

from among the most talented and worthy, irrespective of
the political party of which they might have been mem-
bers. The latter course he could not take without viola-
ting the pledges made in his name by Judge Spencer, and
the former was so directly at war with his feelings that
had he attempted it, he was incapable of carrying it out
in good faith.

If Mr. Clinton had any general system of political ac-
tion, it was one tending to a merger or amalgamation of
all parties into one, or to erect out of the two existing
parties a third party, the object of which should be his
individual support. The idea of an amalgamation of parties
in a free state, is chimerical, and the notion that three
great parties can, for any considerable time exist, is ridi
culous.

OF NEW-YORK. 477

CHAPTER XXIV.

FROM MAY 1, 1818, TO MAY 1, 1819.

Few events of political importance occurred during the
summer of this year.

There can be little doubt but that the leaders of the
party, of which Mr. Van Buren was the head, determined,
before the meeting of the legislature now chosen, to draw
the line distinctly between the supporters and opponents
of the governor. The difficulty consisted in doing this in
such a way as to produce a conviction that the governor's
friends were a minority, and a dissenting' section from the
republican party.

Partly by accident, Etnd partly by good management on
the part of the Van Buren party, and bad management of
Mr. Clinton and his friends, this object was effected, or
claimed to have been effected.

William Thompson, a native of Saratoga county, had
established himself in the practice of law in the county of
Seneca. He was a young man of respectable talents, and
had once or twice represented that county in the assembly^
and, while a member, some personal difficulty had occurred
between him and Lieut. Gov. Taylor. A sharp contest
had also happened between him and Mr. Elisha Williams
of Hudson, in relation to the public buildings in Seneca
county — Thompson contending that they ought to be loca-
ted at Ovid, and Williams, that Waterloo, where he was
largely interested, ought to be their site. Mr. Thompson
was again, in April, 1818, elected to the assembly from
Seneca. He was a man of warm passions, and, from the
circumstances I have mentioned, had acquired strong pre-
judices against several persons of standing and influence

478 POI-ITICAL HISTORy

in the central part of the state, and among them, Gov.
Clinton came in for a share of his dislike. Hewasreadily
fixed upon as the candidate of the Van Buren party for
speaker, because he was a western man; and on that ac-
count, as well as on account of the interest which several
members, who lived in the same district of country with
him, felt in favor of locating the court-house at Ovid, it
was supposed some members would vote, in caucus, for
him, who would not vote for Mr. Sharp, or other distin-
guished Bucktails resident in the southern part of the
state. Mr. Thompson was undoubtedly informed of this,
probably by his old acquaintance and friend, Col. Young,
before he left home; and measures were taken to procure
the attendance in Albany, on the evening before the ses-
sion, of every one who it was believed, or hoped, would,
in caucus, vote for Thompson.

The day appointed by law for the meeting of the legis-
lature, was the 5th of January. The arrangement for the
nomination of Mr. Thompson for speaker, was kept a pro-
found secret from the Clintonian republicans; and an im
pression prevailed among them that John Van Ness Yates,
who had been elected to the assembly from Albany, a man
supposed to be rather unsettled as to which party he would
attach himself, would be the speaker.

Gov. Clinton and Judge Spencer desired for speaker a
more decided man than Mr. Yates; but presuming upon
their influence with the members from the country, had
taken no measures to fix public sentiment upon any one,
until the day before the legislature were to meet, when
they determined upon Gen. German. I cannot but con-
sider this determination as extremely injudicious. Mr.
German himself, from his native good sense, at first dis-
approved of it. It was a long time since he had been a
member of the assembly. He knew that prejudices existed
against him among many even of Mr. Clinton's best

OF KEW-rORK. 479

friends. He wished, he said, to take his place as a floor
member of the house, and he hoped, in the course of the
session, to regain the confidence of his old friends. But
this did not satisfy the governor. Possibly some of the
federal members who were in town, may have urged that
German ought to be the speaker. They, no doubt, wished
to widen the breach between the Clintonian and Van Bu-
ren republicans. What could hasten that breach more
effectually than the support of German for speaker 1 He
had, while in congress, opposed the declaration of war,
and some of the war measures. He had signed the ad-
dress against the election of Tompkins, in 1813, and he,
at that moment, owed his election to the federalists, hav-
ing been chosen in opposition to a regular democratic
nomination. If, then, it was desirable that Mr. Clinton
should retain in his support a majority of the republicans,
nothing could have been more mal-apropos than the sup-
port of Mr. German. But, if it was unwise in Mr. Clin-
ton and Judge Spencer, to determine on him as a candi-
date, it was still more inexcusable to have brought him
forward without consultation, and without previous ar-
rangements with their friends in the country. Objectiona-
ble as Gen. German was, there can be very little doubt,
if proper measures had been taken a few weeks before the
meeting of the legislature, a majority of the republicans
might have been obtained who would have supported him
in caucus. But not the slightest effort was made by the
governor, or his friends at Albany, to prepare the mmds'
of their friends in the country for such a measure. On
the contrary, they were wholly ignorant of the project,
until they arrived in Albany.

Perhaps it may be thought that I attach too much im-
portance to this transaction, but I am sure I do not. If
names and forms, on any occasion, are things, they em-
phatically were so at that time. I aver it as my delibe-

480 POLITICAL HISTORY

rate opinion, that the error committed by the Clintonian
republicans, in respect to the support of Mr. German on
the evening of the 4th, and on the fifth day of January,
was the cause of their prostration and ruin as a party.

At the caucus, on the evening before the day appointed
for the meeting of the legislature, there were seventy-five
republican members present. On balloting for speaker,
Thompson received forty-two votes, and German thirty-
three. As I have before remarked, all the Bucktail
members were there, while from ten to fifteen Clintonians
had not arrived. After the result of the balloting was
announced, the friends of German refused to vote in favor
of concurring with the majority; and the next day also,
when the house convened, they refused to support him.
In this, in my judgment, they were clearly in the wrong.
It is useless to allege that all their friends had not arrived.
That they knew before they went into caucus. When
they consented to a caucus nomination they were pledged
to support that nomination, and it was a violation of
plighted faith and honor to refuse to do so. It was the
very predicament in which their opponents desired to
place them. The actual result was a far greater gratifica
tion to Van Buren and his friends than if Thompson had
been elected.

When the assembly met, on the morning of the 5th of
January, upon balloting for speaker, no one had a majority
of all the votes. The candidates were German, Thomp-
son, and Duer of Albany. On the first ballot German
received more votes than either of the other two candi-
dates. The house, after balloting four times, with nearly
the same result, adjourned to the next day. On the morn-
ing of the 6th, another ballot was taken, the result of
which was as follows: — German, fifty-five; Thompson,
thirty-eight; Duer, twenty.

OF NEW-YORK. 481

No one having a majority of all the votes, Gen. Root
offered a resolution that William Thompson be appointed
speaker of that house. The following members voted in
favor of this resolution: — Beebe, Blakely, Clark, Cleland
Conklin, Crolius, Deyo, Eldred, Ells, Fosdick, Foster
Frost, Gale, Groot, J. Guion, Gurnee, Hatfield, E. Hill
N. P. Hill, Howell, Howes, Humphrey, Hunter, Irving
Litchfield, McCall, Morgan, Nichols, Osborn, Patterson
Reynolds, Romaine, Root, Sharp, Spencer, Ulshoeffer,Wat-
kins, Weed, A. Wells, W^illiams and Youngs — forty-one.

The whole number of votes given for Mr. Thompson
being but forty-one, and the residue of the members pre-
sent voting in the negative, the resolution was rejected.

A motion was then made, that William A. Duer be de-
clared speaker, and the following members voted in favor
of this resolution: — Barker, Beebe, Beadle, Carman, Da-
vis, Finch, Frost, H. Guyon, Houghtaling, Huntington,
Ketcham, King, Kissam, Lapham, Litchfield, Livingston,
Oakley, Piatt, Requa, Root, Simmons, Swart, J. Thomp-
son, Tomlison, Van Buren, Van Loan, Van Rensselaer,
Waldron, S. Warren, A. W^ells and Williams — thirty-one.

All the other members voting in the negative this reso-
lution was lost.

After the rejection of these resolutions, one was offered
for the appointment of Obadiah German, and it was
adopted, sixty-seven members voting in the affirmative,and
forty-eight in the negative. On this question Mr, Duer
and Mr. John A. King, of Queens county, voted in the
negative.

The refusal of the Clintonian members of the legislature

to adhere to the determination of a republican legislative

caucus, and the eventual support, in connection with the

federalists, of a man holding such a political standing as

Gen. German at that time held, excited alarm among the

republicans throughout the state. Was there not good

31

482 POLITICAL HISTORY

cause foi- that alarm ? Probably ninety-nine out of a
hundred, of Mr. Clinton's republican friends, earnestly
wished to keep the democratic party, as a party, together.
Was there any way of effecting that object, except by the
enforcement of the usage, that on questions about the se-
lections for office, the minority should yield to the majo-
rity 1 Here was a flagrant violation of that rule, at the
seat of government, in favor of a man, who, to his politi-
cal sins for six years past, had added yet another, by ob-
taining a seat in the assembly by federal votes, against a
candidate nominated by a regular republican county con-
vention.

The governor, in his speech, presented a very able view
of the condition and prospects of the state. He again
reviewed the canal policy, and reminded the legislature,
that by the act of April 15, 1817, the canal commissioners
were merely authorized to contract for making canals be-
tween the Mohawk and Seneca rivers, and between Lake
Champlain and the river Hudson at Fort Edward; and he
forcibly and strongly recommended authorizing, by law,
the commissioners to open the entire line of canal naviga-
tion from Lake Erie to the tide waters of the Hudson, and
from Fort Edward to the head of sloop navigation on the
North river. He recommended several other important
matters in relation to other great interests of the state.

After reading this, and other of the annual messages of
Gov. Clinton, so unobjectionable, judicious and patriotic
are his views, that one, at this period, will be at loss to
account for the reason why any honest and upright man,
who felt a due reo;ard to the interest and honor of the
state, could find it in his heart to oppose him.

The term of service of Rufus King, in the United
States senate, was to expire on the 4th of March of this
year, and it was the duty of the present legislature to ap-
point a successor. But, before their meeting, it had beeri

OF NEW-YORK. 483

industriously circulated among the republican Clintonians,
by the opponents of the governor, that he was in favor of
the re-election of Mr. King, and that he was induced to
take this course with a view to conciliate the federalists.
Nothing could be more untrue than this allegation. It
was in vain that he denied it. The very men who circu-
lated the report, at the same time stated, that the governor
publicly disclaimed such intention, but they, notwithstand-
ing, insisted that he was secretly in favor of the measure.
How was it possible to disprove a charge made and sus-
tained in this manner 1 If Mr. Clinton, in his conversa-
tion about an United States senator, spoke against the re-
election of Mr. King, it was precisely the course of con-
duct which his opponents had indicated.

On the other hand, many leading and bigoted federal-
ists ascertained what were the real feelings of Mr. Clinton
towards Mr. King, and from that moment they declared
war against him. Hence, the conduct and votes of Mr.
Duer and Mr. John A. King; in relation to the election of
Gen. German as speaker, who, when the final question
was taken, refused to vote for him. Hence, Field Mar-
shal Coleman, in his paper, after the election, in 1820,
declared, that, until shortly before the election, he was
not only opposed to Clinton, but even preferred Tomp-
kins to him.* But it is not less curious than true, that
while Mr. Clinton was losing friends among the federal-
ists, because, as they charged, and probably truly, that he
was personally hostile to Mr. King, he was losing many
of his republican friends, because the Bucktails charged
him with a friendship and preference for the same gentle-
man.

The federalists in the legislature, led by Mr. Van Vech-
ten in the senate, and Mr. Duer and Mr. Oakley in the
assembly, perceiving that the members claiming to be
* See Evening Post, May, 1820.

484 POLITICAL HISTORY

democratic would disagree in the choice of senator, deter-
mined to support Mr. King. I am, however, aware, and
I ought to have mentioned, that, by this time, two parties
had sprung up among the federalists. A minority, led by
Mr. Duer in the assembly, and by Mr. Coleman and the
Goodies, in New- York, were determined to make war on
the governor, while a large majority, at the head of whom
stood Mr. Oakley, in the legislature, and judges Van
Ness and Piatt, out of it, seemed equally determined to
amalgamate with the Clintonian party, and support Mr.
Clinton's administration. Why, then, did the latter class,
on the question of speaker, and in the election of a sena-
tor, take a course so embarrassing to the governor and his
friends 1 Why did they not pursue that line of conduct
best calculated to secure to him the support of the majo-
rity of the republican party 1 It is often difficult, and
sometimes impossible, to discern the real motives of poli-
ticians.

Notwithstanding the dissentions which had occurred in
the choice of a speaker, and the violation, on the part of
the Clintonians, of the obligations they incurred when
they consented to go into a caucus, it was determined to
call a meeting of all the republican members of the legis-
lature for the purpose of nominating a senator. The
Clintonian members of the senate had had no agency in
the proceedings relative to the speaker; and several of
them, particularly Doct. Barstow of Tioga, Mr. Adams
of Lewis, and myself, were determined not to permit a
permanent separation of the republican party, if, by any
means, it could be avoided. A meeeting was therefore
called, in the senate chamber, to nominate a senator, and
due notice for that purpose given. The Clintonians had
fixed upon John C. Spencer, a member of the United
States house of representatives, for their candidate, (and,
in justice to him, I ought to say, this was entirely without

OF NF/.V-yORK. 485

his knowledge,) while it was well understood that the
Bucktail candidate was Col. Young. We did not know
what the result might be, but were determined to support
any gentleman who should be nominated.

The Bucktail members of the legislature soon ascer-
tained, with certainty, their own strength; and there is
every reason to believe that they became well satisfied
that a majority of the republicans in the two houses were
for Mr. Spencer. I say this, because there was good rea-
son to believe, from their conduct in the caucus w^iich
■was held, that they had determined before they came
there, to break up the meeting without any nomination.
The evidence evinced by their conduct at the caucus, of
this determination, is strengthened by the fact that neither
Mr. Van Buren nor Col. Young attended. The absence
of Mr. Van Buren might be accounted for by the extreme
illness of his wife, but Col. Young had no such excuse.

After the meeting was organized, some gentleman, op-
posed to the governor, addressed the meeting by animad-
verting with great severity on his character and conduct,
and concluded by reproaching the Clintonians for not
adhering to the caucus nomination of speaker. Among
others. Gen. German replied, and defended the political
character of the governor, and the conduct of his friends.
He was followed by a violent personal attack by Mr.
Peter R. Livingston. It appeared to be his object to in-
duce a personal quarrel between himself and Mr. German.
Gen. German was neither slow to answer, nor backward
in retorting personal abuse. This kind of altercation
could not be endured by a large majority of the meeting,
and it finally was dissolved without even an attempt to
transact any business, on the motion of Mr. John T. Ir-
ving, a member from New-York. I own I was glad when
the meeting broke up, and, I believe, I seconded the mo-
tion of Mr. Irving; but I was wrong. It afterwards, as I

486 POLITICAL HISTORY

think, pretty clearly appeared that the Clintonians were
in the majority. They, therefore, should have refused to
adjourn. They should have insisted on making a nomi-
nation, and if their opponents refused to support it, then
they might, with great plausibility, have denounced them
as a faction.

This was the last time the Clintonians and Bucktails
attempted to caucus together as political friends.

A few evenings afterwards the Clintonians held a meet-
ing by themselves, and unanimously nominated John C.
Spencer.

On the day fixed by law for the election of senator, no
nomination could be made. The federalists voted for Mr.
King, the Bucktails for Mr. Young, and the Clintonians for
Mr. Spencer. In the assembly Mr. Spencer received fifty-
four votes, Mr. Young forty-four, and Mr. King thirty -
four. Some of the members, who, on the resolution,
voted for Col. Young, when the resolution was lost, voted
for Mr. King. The whole number of republican votes, in
both houses, for Col. Young, were fifty-seven, while
those given to Mr. Spencer were sixty-four; showing
evidently, at that time, a republican majority in the legis-
lature in favor of Mr. Clinton j but the preponderance of
talent was decidedly w^ith the Bucktails.

Ezekiel Bacon, late comptroller of the United States
treasury, a Clintonian member from Oneida county, was a
man of considerable talent, but the strength and vigor of
his mind had been greatly impaired by a nervous disease.
Gen. German, as I have somewhere before remarked,
when he came into public life, was an uneducated man,
but possessed, by nature, a strong and powerful intellect,
which was now improved by long experience in legisla-
tion. These gentleman had to encounter and repel the
attacks of S. B. Romaine, Ulshoeffer, J. T. Irving and
Sharpe, together with the galling fire of Gen. RooL Mr.

OF NEW- i'ORK. 487

Duer was gathering the materials for the party of " high
minded federalists," and omitted no opportunity of assail-
ing the character and administration of the governor.
Oakley, at the head of the largest portion of federalists,
assumed to take an independent course, and to maintain
an armed neutrality, but it was well understood that he,
and his party, intended eventually to indentify themselves
with the Clintonians. Doct. Barstow, of the senate, was
shrewd and sagacious, but quite unable to cope w^ith such
giants as Van Buren and Young. Henry Yates, who, it
will be remembered, held the casting vote in the council
of 1818, no longer claimed to be a supporter of Mr. Clin-
ton, but acted openly and decidedly with the Bucktails.
If he was before, as I thought I had reason to suspect,
inclined to identify himself with that party, the conduct
of the Clintonians in the choice of a speaker, furnished
him with a plausible excuse for effectuating his intention.
The Clintonian and Bucktail republicans were now
known as two distinct parties; and the last mentioned
party received an accession of strength, in the senate,
which was not anticipated by the Clintonians. Not long
after the meeting of the legislature, Mr. Childs and Mr.
Evans began to manifest symptoms of dissatisfaction with
the party which had elected them, and soon after the sepa-
ration of which I have spoken, publicly took ground with
the adverse party. In this, I think they were wrong; for,
although I am not a believer in the doctrine of instruc-
tions, to the extent it is held in Virginia and some other
states in the union, I do think, that if a man is elected by
a political party, because he professes to be a member of
that party, if, after his election, he changes his opinions,
as it is possible he may conscientiously do, he ought, in
such case, to give back the power which has been commit-
ted to him by his constituents, and afford them an oppor-
tunity to re-elect him, if they also have changed their

488 POLITICAL HISTORY

opinionsj and if they have not changed them, to allow
them the opportunity of choosing a representative who
will carry into effect their wishes.

During the pending session of the legislature, with the
exception of Messrs. Van Buren, Young and Skinner of
the senate, nearly, if not all those who opposed themselves
to Mr. Clinton, founded their opposition to him upon an
avowed opposition to the system of internal improvements
which he advocated. This attitude was taken by the re-
presentation from the southern district in the senate and
assembly, and by Gen. Root and others in various other
parts of the state. The National Advocate, the leading
Bucktail paper in the state, had boldly staked the fate of
the party on the trial of that issue. But, during this ses-
sion, a change in this respect took place. Mr. Buel, un-
der an assurance from the majority in the senate, that he
should be retained as state printer, came out in the Argus
against the governor, and that paper now became the offi-
cial Van Buren paper. It was said, likewise, that a cau-
cus was held, of the republican members opposed to Got.
Clinton, at which it was determined to support the pro-
jected internal improvements. Whether such a determi-
nation was formally made in caucus, I am unable to sayj
but it is certain, that a sudden and most important change,
about this time, did take place in the action of the Buck-
tail party, with respect to the canal, and that that change
was almost universal. Mr. Sharpe of the assembly, and
two or three of the southern senators, were too stubborn
to surrender immediately, and Gen. Root occasionally
exercised his wit upon the projectors and supporters of
the canals; but after this, as a party, they made no oppo-
sition to this great work. It is not improbable that some
were induced to take this course from the consideration
that, so long as they continued their opposition to the ca-
nal, the whole west would be against them. But it is

OF KEW-YORK. 489

wrong to suspect a man of doing, from selfish and bad
motives, a good act.

After the opposition to Mr. Clinton's views, in respect
to internal improvements, was given up, there remained
no measures about which the two sections of the republi-
can party differed. Here then, were two parties, bitter
and virulent against each other, who cordially agreed on
all questions of principle, and measures affecting the inter-
est of the state, and who mutually concurred in their sup-
port of the men who administered the general govern-
ment. Might not Mr. Clinton, justly complain that while
the measures proposed by him were approved, he was
himself the object of a most bitter hostility? Did his
opponents object to his integrity or capacity 1 No man
pretended to question the purity of his private character,
all admitted that he possessed talents of the highest or-
der. In one respect, however, to use a legal phrase, Mr.
Clinton was estopped from making' such complaint. The
same Mr. Clinton had assailed and finally prostrated Gov.
Lewis on the same ground, and with the same weapons
which were now used against himself. If the chalice
which Mr. Van Buren now presented to him was poisoned,
it was the same which Mr. Clinton had commended to

Mr. Lewis.

There were two prominent grounds of attack on Gov.

Clinton. The one was, that he claimed that he was in
himself the party ^ that he challenged the admiration and
almost adoration of his friends, and that the only decisive
evidence of political merit among his supporters was per-
sonal devotion to him. It must be confessed that there
were some grounds for this charge. Mr. Clinton from his
boyhood, had been the child of power, and either directly
or indirectly the distributer of patronage. At an early
age he was secretary of Gov. George Clinton, and during
the time he was such secretary, and after the political

490 POLITICAL HISTORY

revolution in 1801, when the elder Clinton was restored
to the executive chair, what more eflficient means had the
applicants for office to reach the heart of the venerable
governor than through the agency and influence of a favor-
ite nephewl After George Clinton had left the state, and
after the overthrow of Lewis, and until the year 1814,
De Witt Clinton was looked up to as almost the sovereign
dispenser of governmental patronage. It would be strange
if after such a training, the force of habit alone had not
rendered him attached to adulation. Office seekers, and
especially many of his old friends in New-York, soon per-
ceived that eulogiums on De Witt Clinton furnished
the most effectual means of defeating rivals for place and
emolument. These praises which really sounded like adu-
lation, were not suited to the taste of stern republicans
and independent freemen.

The other ground of accusation was that the governor
w^as improperly but secretly united with the old federal
party. This charge was feebly sustained by proof, but
from the manner in which it was made, I have before hinted
it was difficult, if not impossible to disprove it; and when
we consider that the federal party, at that time, declared
themselves disbanded in the state and nation; that Mr.
Clinton had as yet,appointed very few federalists to office, —
probably fewer than Governor Tompkins would have done
had he continued in the government, and less in proportion
than Mr. Monroe in the administration of the general
government had appointed, the Bucktails in the meantime,
claiming to be the exclusive friends of his administration, —
no good reason can now suggest itself to any mind why
this charge should have injuriously affected Mr. Clinton.
But in truth it did effect him most seriously. It drew
from his support a large portion of those who are gener-
ally called the rank and file men. The charge was con-
tinually being made, and was not and could not be dis-

OF NEW-YORK. 491

proved; and in their minds it was confirmed by the fact
that a portion of the federalists affected to be, and pro-
bably really were, the friends and supporters of the
governor.

On the other hand, the praises which were continually
in the mouths of some of Mr. Clinton's partizans, and
chaunted in many of the Clintonian newspapers, disgusted
and detatched from the support of the state administration
many high minded and honorable, but perhaps rather too
sensitive men. By the one ground of attack the governor
was loosing men of elevated and cultivated minds; by the
other, the predilection and favor of that part of the repub-
licans who looked too much at the surface of things, and
formed their opinions rather from their suspicions and
apprehensions of what might be, than on evidence of
what actually was.

Amidst these collisions and violent struggles, which were
little better than a mere contest for ojffice and its emolu-
ments between citizens, it affords me pleasure to state that
the common school system received great improvement
from a very able report made by Mr. Hawley, the superin-
tendent, and from the able andzealoussupport with which
his recommendations were sustained by Gen. Root in the
assembly. So great was the confidence of all men in
Mr. Hawley, (a confidence richly merited,) that during
the discussion of the bill in the assembly, Mr. H. was re-
quired to take a seat with the members and occasionally
make verbal explanations of the objects he had in view,
in several of the details of his bill. The plan proposed
Ly the bill which became a law,was very judicious, and with
the alteration recommended for two successive years by
Mr. Spencer, of the appointment of county superinten-
dents, which was adopted by the legislature of 1841, con-
stitutes substantially our present common school system;
a system which is as nearly perfect as one can be, and at

492 POLITICAL HISTORY

the same time be in accordance with the genius of our
civil institutions, and with the the existing state of so-
ciety.

When the bill authorizing the commissioners to contract
for the construction of the whole line of the canals, was be-
fore the senate, several of the Clintonian senators opposed
it, or rather they preferred limiting the commissioners to
particular sections, in order that a demonstration could be
furnished of the practicability of the w^ork, and of the
actual expenses which would be required in order to com-
plete it. We (for I was one of the number,) were friends
of the work, but we believed that public confidence would
be better preserved by this cautious course than by invest-
ing the commissioners at once, and before any demonstra-
tion had been afforded of the practicability of the scheme,
with the power to incur a debt in the name of the state,
of from five to ten millions of dollars. This was repre-
sented by the Albany Argus, and subsequently in a pam-
phlet written by B. F. Butler, Esq. as opposition to the
canal; and further, that as they were pleased to call Mr.
Barstow, Mr. Ross, and myself, confidential friends of
Mr. Clinton, they attempted an inference that he himself
was not at heart desirous of a speedy completion of the
work.

The following extracts from the Albany Argus and Re-
gister of April, 1819, will enable the reader to arrive at
a correct conclusion as respects these proceedings:
From the Jllhany Argus,

" The Canal Law. — Taking the printed bill for our
data, we made two material mistakes in our last, in noti-
cing this subject. The law authorizes and empowers the
commissioners to proceed to open a canal communication
between the Seneca river and Lake Erie, betweed Utica
and the Hudson river, and between Fort Edward and the
navigable waters of the Hudson. It authorizes an annual

OF NEW-YORK. 493

loan of six hundred thousand dollars including the loan
authorized by a former law.

When the bill was under discussion in the senate, Mr.
Hammond made a motion to strike out of the second sec-
tion so much as authorizes the commencement of the east-
ern and western sections of the Erie Canal; which motion
was negatived, twelve to sixteen, as follows:

For striking out — Messrs. Austin, Barnum, Barstow,
Bowne, Dayton, Ditmis, Hammond, Livingston, Louns-
bury, Noyes, Ross, Swart — twelve.

Against striking out — Messrs. Adams, Allen, Bates,
Childs, Evans, Frey, Hart, Knox, Mallery, Rosekrants,
Seymour, Skinner, Van Buren, Wilson, Yates, Young —
sixteen.

Mr. Ross then moved to strike out so much as author-
izes the commencement of the section between Seneca
river and Lake Erie; which was also negatived — eighteen
to nine.

Mr. Hammond then made a motion to strike out so
much as authorizes the commencement of the section
between Utica and the Hudson river; which was negatived,
eleven to seventeen, as follows:

Ayes — Messrs. Allen, Adams, Austin, Barnum, Bar-
stow, Bowne, Dayton, Frey, Hammond, Noyes, Swart —
eleven.

Nays — Messrs. Bates, Childs, Ditmis, Evans, Hart,
Knox, Livingston, Lounsbury, Mallery, Rosekrants, Ross,
Seymour, Skinner, Van Buren, Wilson, Yates, Young —
seventeen.

It will appear evident from this sketch of proceedings,
that the canal question was neither advocated nor op-
posed in the senate on political grounds; and that some
of Mr. Clinton's warmest political friends were the most
hostile to the principles of the bill."

494 POLITICAL HISTORY

From the Mhany Register.
" The bill mentioned in the article we have extracted
from the Argus of Tuesday last, authorizes the canal
commissioners to contract for the making of the whole
line of the western canal.

When Mr. Hammond made the motion to strike out of
the second section so much as authorizes the immediate
commencement of the eastern and western sections of the
Erie Canal, he stated that he was decidedly in favor of
prosecuting the great work of connecting the waters of
Lake Erie with the Hudson river by a canal; that he had
not a shadow of doubt but that this great object would
be ultimately accomplished; that he had full confidence
in the estimates made by the canal commissioners, and
that he was willing as one of the members of the legisla-
ture to furnish the means of accomplishing this splendid
undertaking. But, he said, that if it was really intended to
complete the work, it was important that public confi-
dence in its practicability should be preserved. What was
the best means of preserving that confidence'? Canals, it
is true, are common in Europe, but they are novel in
America. The people wish a demonstration of the prac-
ticability and utility of the proposed canals. He was
therefore of opinion that the completion of the whole
projected system of internal improvements would be best
ensured by confining our expenditures to the northern ca-
nal and middle section of the western canal, until the
northern canal and middle section of the western should
be completed and in actual operation. With this view he
would cheerfully vote to authorize the commissioners to
borrow any sum they should say was requisite to accom-
plish those objects.

If the northern canal and middle section of the western
canal were completed, and the state in the receipt of the
revenue produced by the tolls from those sections, could

OF NEW-YORK. 495

any man of common sense entertain a doubt but tbat the
eastern and western sections of the Erie canal would be
finished'? He thought not, and therefore made his motion
to strike out.

Mr. Ross stated that he should vote for striking out, for
similar reasons, at the same time declaring his determina-
tion to persevere until the whole system of internal im-
provement should be carried into effect and completed.

Our readers will perceive that the insinuation of op-
position to the canal, contained in the concluding para-
graph, which we have extracted from our neighbor Buel,
is not only incorrect but manifestly unjust as respects Mr.
Ross and Mr. Hammond, and such of their political
friends as voted with them."

The governor, in his speech at the commencement of
the session, was silent on the subject of a convention to
amend the constitution; but Gen. Root, on the eighth of
February, offered a resolution in the assembly for the call
of a convention with unlimited powers to revise, alter, or
modify the constitution.

This resolution called forth an extended and very able
debate. Mr. Root of course supported it with his usual
ability, and he was seconded by Mr. Bacon from Oneida
county, in a very able argument. On the other hand,
the federalists generally, together with Mr. Yates, who
made a very handsome argument, opposed the resolu
tion. As yet, therefore, there was no decisive indications
that the call of a convention would present a question
which would be decided upon party principles.

The resolution was eventually rejected.

During the summer af 1818, Joseph Elicott had re-
signed his office of canal commissioner, and the governor
had, in pursuance of the authority vested in him by law,
as the vacancy happened in the recess of the legislature,
appointed senator Hart in the place of Mr. Ellicott. Thi^

496 POLITICAL HISTORY

appointment was exceedingly judicious; for Mr. Hart,
whatever his defects as a legislator may have been, was a
very correct business man. It became necessary for the
legislature before the session expired, to pass upon this
appointment, as the appointment of Hart would expire
on the adjournment of the legislature.

Mr. Hart being naturally a man of ardent feelings, and
having formerly entertained strong prejudices against the
federal party, and withal being a very indiscreet man in
his conversation, was personally disliked by the federal
members of the legislature. The Bucktails had fixed upon
Henry Seymour, who, although more bitter in his feel-
ings towards the governor, than most of the other
members of his party, was gentlemanly and courteous in
his manners, and as a member of society, highly esteemed
by gentlemen of all parties.

The moment I heard who the opponent of Mr. Hart
was, I was alarmed, as I considered Hart's success very
doubtful. I immediately mentioned my apprehensions to
Gov. Clinton, who laughed at my fears. As I considered
the appointment of great importance in a political point
of view; I called upon Mr. Hart and advised him to make
a thorough canvass of the members of both houses, and
not permit the election to come on until he had obtained
a pledge from a majority of the members that they would
vote for him; and I told him, I thought he was in real
danger of being beaten. He was so sure of his success
that he was angry with me for my suspicion, as it implied
an unfavorable opinion of his popularity. Finding that
the two men most interested were indifferent, I gave my-
self no further trouble about the matter. The Bucktails
set on foot, a quiet but very efficient system of election-
eering, mainly, as I believe, with the federalists. I could
detail some of their operations, but I apprehend it would
fatigue, more than it would amuse the reader.

OF NEW-YORK. 497

Mr. Seymour was nominated in the senate, and Mr-
Hart in the assembly. Upon joint ballot Mr. Seymour
was chosen by a majority of one vote. The aggregate
number at that time in the two houses, of Clintonians and
and federalists, exceeded ninety, while the Bucktails at most
could not count to exceed fifty-seven. Of course fifteen
or twenty Clintonians or federalists, must on joint ballot,
have voted for Mr. Seymour.

The result of the contest between Seymour and Hart
was more seriously unfortunate, and proved more fatally
injurious to the Clintonian party than many of them at
that time apprehended. It gave the Bucktails a majority
in the board of acting commissioners, and thus threw into
their hands a vast amount of patronage ; a patronage
which was felt along the whole line of country from Ai
bany to Lakes Champlain and Erie. Thus the political
influence which grew out of the great and splendid work
which Mr. Clinton had labored so much and so successful
ly to cause to be undertaken by the state, was henceforth
and until the day of his death used to annoy and to pros-
trate him.

Mr. Buel, in announcing this result in the Argus, said:
"A majority of the canal commissioners are now politi-
cally opposed to the governor, and it will not be necessary
for a person who wishes to obtain employment on the ca-
nal as agent, contractor, or otherwise, to avow himself a
Clintonian. Did Judge Buel, by this negative allegation,
intend that an affirmative allegation was to be inferred; to
wit, that in future it would be necessary for a person de-
siring to become a contractor, &c., to avow himself an
anti-Clintonian 1 I hope not; and yet probably some
who wished to become agents, &c., might have so under-
stood him.

The appointment of Chief Justice Thompson secretary

of the navy, produced another vacancy on the bench of

32

498 POLITICAL HISTORY

the supreme court. Judge Spencer was, of course, ap-
pointed chief justice, but the selection of a junior judge
from the bar presented a question of great delicacy and
difficulty. The federalists recommended, and pressed
with great zeal, Samuel Jones, son of the late comptroller,
a learned lawyer and eminent for his virtues as a citizen,
who has since held the office of chancellor of the state,
and is now chief justice of the superior court of the city
of New-York.

On the other hand, John Woodworth, who had for
several years been attorney general, and who was a zeal-
ous republican friend of the governor, was pressed upon
the council as personally unexceptionable and as politically
less objectionable than Jones. Mr. Van Buren was also
mentioned as well qualified for the office; but I am not
aware that, with his own consent, he was spoken of as a
candidate for any appointment by that council. As be-
tween Mr. Woodworth and Mr. Jones, a question was
presented which produced considerable discussion and
excitement, in consequence of which the final action of
the council was long delayed.

About this time a project was formed in relation to the
supreme court, which, had it been adopted, would have
removed the difficulty under which the council labored on
this occasion.

From the great increase of the state, in commerce and
population, and the consequent increase of litigation, the
supreme court had already become overloaded with busi-
ness. The calendar of term causes began to increase upon
them; and as they were obliged to try in the respective
counties, all the issues joined in the supreme court and
some other courts, the increase of the number of counties,
as well as the increase of litigation, added greatly to their
labors when not holding a court in bank. Besides, their
presence as members of the court of errors, and of the

OF NEW-YORK, 499

council of revision, required their attendance at Albany
during the session of the legislature. It was most evident
that five men must sink under this accumulation of labor.
Suitors began to complain of delays, while the judges
were performing as much labor as mortal men could en-
dure. More force, more mew, were evidently necessary
to do the work which, by law, was assigned to the su-
preme court. It was therefore proposed by one of the
Clintonian members of the senate, that, besides filling the
vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Judge Thompson,
two more judges should be appointed; but that it should
not be required that more than five judges should sit du-
ring term. It was suggested that two of the members of
the court, while the others were sitting in bank, might be
employed in holding circuits; and it was proposed that the
three new judges should consist of Woodworth^ Jones and
Van Buren. I am not authorised to say that Mr. Van
Buren would have accepted the appointment, but I have
some reason to believe he would have done so. He ap-
peared to be tired of the eternal political struggles to
which he seemed doomed, and such, in truth, he told me
was the fact. The probability is, that if at that moment
the office of judge had been tendered to him, he would
have gladly retired from political contests, and employed
the great powers of his mind in the discharge of his offi-
cial duties, and would have confined his ambition to the
acquisition of distinction and fame as a jurist.

Had this scheme been adopted, (if one may be allowed
to speculate on probabilities,) it is reasonable to conjec-
ture, that the then existing judicial system would not have
been broken up; that Mr. Clinton would have been sus-
tained; and that probably Mr. Van Buren never would
have been president of the United States. It must be con-
fessed, that one object of the proposer of this plan, was to
get Mr. Van Buren out of the legislature, and detach him

500 POLITICAL HISTOSy

from the active management of the party of which he was
the life and soul.

The project failed of obtaining the approbation of the
governor and his friendsj and, strange to say, the judges
of the supreme court were, I was told, unanimously oppo-
sed to it. Why should they have been so 1 The plan, if
adopted, would render their duties less onerousj their
salaries would not have been diminished. The appoint-
ment of Mr. Jones would have increased the confidence in
the court, of the great federal party; the appointment of
Van Buren would have had the same effect on the Buck-
tail party — a party, which, after the resignation of Judge
Thompson, could hardly be said to be represented in that
important branch of the government; and the appointment
of Woodworth would have satisfied the republican friends
of the governor. Why, then, did the judges of the su-
preme court so promptly reject the proposed alteration 1

Man loves power. The judges did not fail to see, that
if you divide a given quantum of power between seven
men, the quantity of power, held by each, will be less
than when you divide the same quantum between five.

Mr. Woodworth was eventually appointed.

There is good reason to believe that the Bucktails set-
tled on Gov. Tompkins, during this winter, for their can-
didate for governor, in 1820, in opposition to Mr. Clinton,
He was, personally, more popular than any other man of
any party. The old Tammany men, of the southern dis-
trict, preferred him to any other candidate. Mr. Van
Buren wished to unite the largest possible number of the
old republican party in the state, against Mr. Clinton, and
he believed that no name could be so effectual in rallying
the old war party as that of Gov. Tompkins; while his
flexibility of temper, and apparent frankness, he hoped,
instead of repelling, would invite that portion of the fede-
lalists who had manifested hostile feelings towards Got,

OF NEW-YORK. 501

Clinton, to rally around Tompkins, and yield him their
support. In all these respects, the selection of Governor
Tompkins was extremely judicious. But there was one
circumstance against him. From the books of the comp-
troller it appeared that he, to a very large amount, was a
defaulter.

Gov. Tompkins, during the last war, had been, not only
the agent and executive of the state, but he had been the
agent of the general government. Immense sums of mo-
ney had been received and paid out by him, for both go-
vernments. When the credit of the general government
was low, he had, in some instances, on his personal re-
sponsibility, in connection with the credit he had in con-
sequence of his official station as governor of the state,
raised large sums of money, which had been expended in
the service of the general government for the defence of
the state. He had also, no doubt in good faith, paid out
in the aggregate large sums of money belonging to the
state, to officers of the state and national government,
which moneys had not been accounted for, either to Gov.
Tompkins, or the proper accounting officers of the state
and national governments. Gov. Tompkins was not a
methodical business man, and his accounts and vouchers
were not in a condition to bear a rigid scrutiny. Under
these circumstances, a bill was introduced into the legisla-
ture, and passed both houses, {Session Laws of 1819, p.
286,) requiring the comptroller to liquidate and settle the
residue of the accounts of Daniel D. Tompkins, and, on
such settlement, to allow him the same discount or pre-
mium on the amount of monies borrowed by him, on his
personal responsibility, and expended in the public ser-
vice, as were allowed to other individuals and bodies poli-
tic for their agency fees in such transactions; that the
comptroller should charge the sum, so allowed, to the
United States; and that, upon such final settlement, the

502 POLITICAL HISTORY

treasurer pay the late governor the balance, if any were
his due.

The comptroller, by another section, was required to
credit the governor with all payments made by him accord-
ing to law, and to open an account with the persons to
whom the governor had advanced the money, and require
them to account to the state for its expenditure. This bill
passed both houses without much opposition. Mr. Tib-
bits, in the senate, thought he discovered something wrong
in it; but it finally passed that body nearly unanimously.
Undoubtedly Mr. Van Buren, and his leading friends,
considered the passage of this law of very great political
importance. It is not probable that they, or even Gov.
Tompkins, at that time, knew how his accounts would
stand if they were correctly settled. This bill relieved
them, in a great measure, from the embarrassing charge
they apprehended against Gov. Tompkins as a defaulter.
If, upon a fair settlement, upon the liberal terms contem-
plated by the act. Gov. Tompkins should be able to bal
ance his account with the state, then the objection to him
as a defaulter would no longer exist. If, according to the
views of the accounting officer of the state, there would
still remain a balance due from Gov. Tompkins, these
disputed items might be claimed, and a difference of opin-
ion, as to the construction of the act, might be started,
which would prevent a final adjustment of the balance,
either one way or the other, until after the election in
April, 1820.

The annual election of senators and members of assem-
bly was now approaching, and each party took the field
with great spirit. The federalists, in counties where they
had a clear majority, as in Columbia, Oneida, Albany, &c.,
supported candidates who had uniformly belonged to that
party. In counties where they were in the minority they
generally supported Clintonian candidates. The middle

OF NEW-YORK. 503

district presented a singular state of things. By this time
it was w^ell ascertained, that a very great majority of the
republicans of that district were opposed to Mr. Clinton.
But the Clintonians and federalists united, constituted a
majority, and even then but a small majority, over the ad-
verse party.

The Bucktail party had nominated Charles E. Dudley
of Albany, and John T.Moore of Delaware, and the Clin-
tonians had nominated Elisha Jenkins of Albany, and
Arunah Metcalf of Otsego. The candidates on both sides
were, personally, men of good reputation and entirely un-
objectionable. My reader will also bear in mind, that if
any considerable portion of the federal or Clintonian
strength should be diverted from the Clintonian ticket, it
would ensure the success of their opponents. Under
these circumstances Solomon Southwick, a self-nominated
candidate, claimed the support of the old Clintonians of
the district; and Abraham Van Vechten — the respectable
and justly esteemed and venerable Abraham VanVechten —
allowed himself to be a candidate to draw off the. votes of
a few old federalists who would not vote for a democrat
if a federal name was before them. Mr. Southwick chal-
lenged and obtained the support of the ultra Clintonians,
and Mr. Van Vechten of the ultra federalists. Mr. South-
wick, whose conduct never seemed to have been governed
by any system or fixed rule of action, may have been in-
duced to pursue this course from mere personal hostility
to Judge Spencer and Mr. Jenkins, and perhaps from re-
sentment to Mr. Clinton; but Mr. Van Vechten must
have been governed by other motives. He, knowing, as
he did, that he could not be elected, must have lent his
name for the express purpose of securing the success of
Messrs. Dudley and Moore, two candidates who chal-
lenged support on the ground that they were in favor of
an eternal war upon federalists and federalism.

504 POLITICAL HISTORY

EA'tntually, Mr. Van Vechten received two 'housand
two hundred and twenty-six federal votes, and Mr. Soutii-
wick one thousand and fourteen Clintonian votes, which
caused the election of Messrs. Dudley and Moore, over
Messrs. Jenkins and Metcalf.

Before the adjournment of the legislature an address of
the Clintonian members was drawn, signed and published.*
Although it was written for effect, shortly before an elec-
tion, and must be presumed, on that account, to present
the most favorable view of the history of the proceedings
in the winter of 1819, as respects the Clintonians; yet I
am quite sure the facts it contains are substantially cor-
rect; and I think it presents pretty clearly the points in
difference between the two parties. The intention of the
author, was to avoid any abuse of the adverse party, and
all unnecessary eulogy on the governor.

Although this address, as originally drawn and finally
published, met, I believe, with the cordial approbation of
those who subscribed it, yet I was mortified to be informed
that it was not sufl5ciently laudatory of Gov. Clinton to
suit the taste of many of his New- York friends; among
whom, I am sorry to say, were two young gentlemen of
some talents as writers, then lately from New-Hampshire.
The gentlemen, to whom I allude, were N. H. Carter,
who had recently taken the editorial management of the
Albany Register, and Charles G. Haines of the city of
New- York.

If any one should take the trouble of reading the ad-
dress, about which I have perhaps already said too much,
he will naturally enquire why nothing was said in it about
the election of speaker. The answer is, that nothing
could be said in justification of the conduct of the Clinto-
nian party on that occasion.

• This document will be found under Note A , at the end of this voluin«.

OF NEW- YORK. 505

The republican members of the legislature, who were
opposed to Gov. Clinton, also addressed the citizens of
the state, setting forth the causes of their opposition.
This document was, I have reason to believe, written by
William L. Marcy. It was drawn up with great ability,
and like all his other writings, was a production clothed
in a style highly finished and elegant. It was my inten-
tion to have republished this address also, with a view of
showing the points of difference between the two parties
as exhibited at the time by themselves, but I have been
unable to find it.

The result of the election, in April, was a gain to the
Bucktail party. There were, nevertheless, in the assem-
bly, including the Clintonian federalists, a majority re-
turned in favor of the governor.

In the senate, from the southern district, Peter R. Liv-
ingston and John Townsend were elected, in opposition
to James Talmadge and Pierre Van Cortland, who were
the Clintonian candidates. From the middle, Charles E.
Dudley and John T. Moore. From the eastern, Benjamin
Moers, Duncan McMartin and Thomas Frothingham; and
from the western, Gideon Granger and Lyman Paine, in
opposition to Philetus Swift and Nathaniel Garrow, the
Bucktail candidates.

The first named four gentlemen were elected as oppo-
nents, and the last five as supporters of Mr. Clinton's ad-
ministration.

506 POLITICAL HISTORY

CHAPTER XXV.

FROM MAY 1, 1819, TO MAY 1, 1820.

Before the council of appointment adjourned in April,
1819, they issued new general commissioners of the peace
to several counties of the state, and in the selections to
office, seem to have been guided very much by political
considerations. The new appointments were made almost
exclusively from the friends of the governor, many of
whom were federalists, and those left out of the commis-
sion were chiefly of that class of politicians called Buck-
tails.

The removal of Richard Riker, recorder of New-York,
produced considerable excitement. Although an old
friend of the governor; yet from the time that Mr. Clin-
ton's friend (Townsend) had refused to second his nomina-
tion to the office of judge of the supreme court in pre-
ference to that of Jonas Piatt, he had been as bitter, as a
man of his pliable and apparent courteous exterior could
be, in his opposition to the Clintonians. Peter A. Jay,
was the man whom the bar and the substantial citizens of
New-York required should be made recorder. His high
attainments as a lawyer, the purity of his morals, and
his pre-eminent standing as a man of integrity and hon-
or, obviously indicated him, as, aside from former politi-
cal prejudices, the most suitable man for the office. The
council, however, hesitated long before they consented to
his appointment, solely and exclusively on the ground
that he was a federalist; and, (what surely to an Ameri-
can patriot ought not to have constituted an objection,)
that he was the son of the late Governor Jay. For my
part, although my prejudices were as strong against the

OF NEW-YORK. 507

federal party, as those of any man; yet I considered that
whether by our own wrong, or in accordance with our
duty, we had placed ourselves in a condition in which
it was not only our interest, but duty, to select our
officers from those who were most worthy, who were de-
termined to support the re-election of the governor, irre-
spective of the political parties to which they had formerly
belonged. Doct. Barstow, and several other republicans
of the old school, entertained the same opinion, and there-
fore advised the appointment of Mr. Jay. He was ap-
pointed.

In July, the council again met. Although the removal
of minor office-holding Bucktails and the appointment of
Clintonians had been very general; yet Mr. Van Buren,
who stood at the head of the opposition to the governor,
and led on the attack, had been allowed to hold one of
the most important, influential and at that time lucrative
offices in the state, the office of attorney general, undis-
turbed. It was urged that this inconsistency in the con-
duct of the administration ought to be obviated; and af-
ter much and long hesitation the council removed him, and
appointed Thomas J. Oakley in his place. Upon the
principle I have just laid down, (whether it was correct or
not, is another question,) there could be no reasonable
objection to Mr. Oakley's appointment. He was an able
lawyer, and in all respects admitted to be competent.
Mr. Van Buren, according to the maxims which before
had, and since have governed his political conduct, had
no nght to complain, and in fact, I believe, he did not;
but an outcry was of course raised in the newspapers, on
account of the removal of a republican from an important
office, and the appointment of a federalist in his place.
The appointment of Mr. Jay and Mr. Oakley, did, in fact,
more effectually identify Mr. Clinton and his republican

508 POLITICAL HISTORY

friends with the federalists than any act which had before
been done.

During this summer a controversy arose between the
vice-president, Tompkins, and the comptroller, Archibald
Mclntyre, growing out of a difference of opinion in rela-
tion to the construction of the act for the settlement of the
accounts of the former with the state, which was passed
on the 13th April, 1819, in which both political parties
ardently engaged, and which agitated the whole com-
munity, and increased in heat and bitterness until after the
election in April, 1820.

I shall not attempt to give in detail the particulars of
this controversy, but merely state the conclusions to
■which I have arrived, from my knowledge and participa-
tion in the controversy while it existed; and more espe-
cially from a careful re-examination, recently made, of
the documents in relation to it. If I shall have run into
errors, those errors may be readily corrected by the docu-
ments contained in the printed journals of the two houses
of the legislature.

During the preparation for the late war with Great
Britain, and during that war, the state and national go-
Ternments had placed at the disposition of the late gover-
nor several millions of dollars, to be expended under his
direction, and for which he was, of course, called on to
account.

He was irregular and immcthodical in business; not sys-
tematical in keeping his accounts; employed too many
agents; mingled his own private funds with those of the
public; was naturally careless about money, and some-
times profuse in his expenses. The novelty of a state of
war, and the hurry and bustle incident to that state, in-
creased the confusion in which his accounts were involved.
No candid man ever charged him with intentional dishon-
esty in his pecuniary transactions.

OF NEW- YORK. 509

The comptroller was one of the most amiable and ex-
cellent of men. A rigidly honest, strictly correct and able
accountant, and assiduous and unremitting in his attention
to his public duties.

Upon the final adjustment of the accounts of the vice-
president, from the vouchers presented to the comptroller,
though the precise state of the accounts was not ascer-
tained, there was supposed, in 1816, to be a balance of
one hundred and ten thousand or one hundred and twenty
thousand dollars of the public money in the hands of the
vice-president, for which he could not legally account.
This deficiency was supposed to be, and I believe it to be,
owing, not to an intentional appropriation by him of the
money of the state to his own use, but to the casual loss
of vouchers; to the payment of money, in many cases,
when, in the hurry and bustle of the times, no vouchers
at all were takenj to the infidelity and knavery of agents;
and, perhaps, as he mingled his own money with that of
the public, to his sometimes expending for domestic pur-
poses more than his income, and thereby, unintentionally,
using for private purposes the public funds.

With views somewhat similar, as I presume, to those I
have suggested as my own, in the year 1818, the legisla-
ture, by resolution, referred the settlement of the vice-
president's accounts to William A. Bayard, Cadwallader
D. Golden and Robert Bogardus, who were directed to
adjust them upon principles of equity, without regarding
the technical rules by which the regular accounting offi-
cers of the state were governed. Mr. Bayard declined
acting as a commissioner, but the vice-president submitted
his claims to Messrs. Golden and Bogardus. These claims
consisted of commissions on $1,075,021.72 drawn and
expended and accounted for to the state, and for risk
and responsibility for officers and agents, to whom the

510 POLITICAL HISTORY

money had been confided, expenses, journeys, &c., at five

per cent, $53,75 1 98

To commissions on $2,363,516 . 27, obtained

from the United States, and upon per

sonal loans and advances, expended and

accounted for, $118,175 80

To premium on discount of $1,095,000.00

at twenty per cent, in stock, being the

amount loaned on the vice-president's

personal responsibility, and advanced

and accounted for, $277,506 00

These claims, together with the interest on

the several items, amounted to upward of $600,000 00

It does not appear that the vice-president expected
or requested that the whole of these claims should be
allowed him by the commissioners; on the contrary, they
■were presented to enable the commissioners to select
out of them such claims as, in their judgment, were the
most equitable, which would amount to a sum sufficient
to enable the vice-president to balance his account with
the state. As Mr. Bayard refused to act, the commission-
ers were incapable of making any decision which would
be binding on the state. Messrs. Colden and Bogardus,
however, made a report to the legislature, in 1819, in
which they pronounced an eloquent eulogium on the vice-
president, and recommended that a liberal allowance be
made to him. In justice to the vice-president, and to the
honor of the commissioners, it is proper to bear in mind,
that they were politically opposed to Gov. Tompkins.
The report of the commissioners, in 1819, was referred to
a joint committee of the two houses, who unanimously
arrived at the conclusion that a sufficient sum ought to be
allowed the vice-president to enable him to balance his ac-
count with the state. The committee ascertained that the
balance due from the late governor was about one hun-

OF NEW- YORK. 511

dred and twenty thousand dollars. Believing that he had
been a faithful officer; that the defalcation was owing to
the extraordinary state of the times; to unintentional error
and misfortune, rather than to intentional deviation from
duty; and, as Mr. Tompkins held the second office
in the nation, from delicacy towards him, the com
mittee were unwilling to recommend the passage of
an act which, on its face, would imply that he was a de-
faulter. They therefore selected an item, contained in his
schedule, of about a million of dollars, consisting of cur-
rent money which had been raised by Gov. Tompkins
during the war, on the pledge of United States stock and
treasury notes, and on his personal responsibility, for de-
fraying the expenses of carrying on the war, on which to
allow him a premium equal to that paid by the United
States to their own agents for converting treasury notes,
and their depreciated stocks, into current money. The
premium was understood to be, as stated in a letter from
Mr. Bacon, one of the joint committee, about twelve per
cent. They probably selected that item because twelve
per cent on a million of dollars would produce one hun-
dred and twenty thousand dollars, supposed to be the pre-
cise balance due from the vice-president. The joint com-
mittee accordingly recommended, and the legislature
passed, the law of the 13th April, 1819, as I have stated
in the preceding chapter.

When the vice-president presented his claim, under this
act, to the comptroller, he furnished him with certificates
from Doct. Isaac Brunson, Prime, Ward & Sands, and
other dealers in stock, showing that the difference in value
between treasury notes and United States stock, and cur-
rent money, in the year 1814, was about twenty-five per
cent. This would have entitled the vice-president to the
sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, for a pre-
mium on the one million of dollars raised by him, and

512 POLITICAL HISTORY

therefore would, besides balancing his account, have au-
thorized him to demand a payment from the state treasury
of about one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. The
comptroller was alarmed at this demand. He knew it
was directly contrary to the intentions of the joint com-
mittee who reported the bill, and the legislature which
passed it; and he finally resorted to a construction of the
act highly technical and rigid, and as foreign to the real
intention of the legislature as was the amount of what he
supposed to be, and probably what was intended to be,
(or why should he have produced the certificates of Doct.
Benson and others 1) the vice-president's claim. The act
awarded to the vice-president a premium on all moneys
borrowed " on his personal responsibility ^^ which the
comptroller construed to mean on his personal responsibili-
ty alone-j and therefore, where treasury notes or stock
were pledged jointly with his responsibility, the comp-
troller refused to allow the premium. This construction,
in effect, nullified the act.

The vice-president fortified his claim by the written
opinion of several of the most eminent lawyers in the
state. On the other hand, the comptroller offered to sub-
mit the question to the judges of the supreme court j to
them and the chancellor; or to the judges, chancellor and
attorney general; or to the chancellor, chief justice and
attorney general; or, he proposed, that the vice-president
should apply to the supreme court for a mandamus against
him, which would necessarily require that court to pro-
nounce oflUcially their opinion on the construction of the
act in question. The vice-president declined to accede to
any of these propositions, but, it is proper to state, that in
each of the ways for deciding the question, proposed by
the comptroller, the decision would have been made by a
tribunal, a majority of the persons composing which were
politically adverse to Mr. Tompkins.

OF NEW- YORK. * 5 13

The negotiations between the parties finally terminated
in the month of August, neither party being willing to
yield to the other. After it had been agreed that no set-
tlement could be made, according to the statement of the
comptroller, and not denied by the vice-president, he pro-
posed that his account should be balanced, and to accept
of twenty-five thousand dollars as the balance due him
under the act of 1819; but the comptroller, having com-
mitted himself in relation to the construction of the act,
refused to accede to the proposition.

The comptroller, not long after, published, in the form
of a letter, addressed to the vice-president, a detailed
statement of the controversy, to which Gov. Tompkins
replied in a very able and eloquent communication which
■was published and circulated all over the state. The
comptroller subsequently replied to this communication,
and his reply was also published, and had an equally ex-
tensive circulation. This correspondence was conducted,
although with much asperity, with great tact and ability
on both sides. The comptroller proved himself, not only
a distinguished and able accountant, but a talented and
accomplished writer. The letter of the vice-president is
a splendid production. Shortly before its publication,
Mr. Van Buren spent several days with Gov. Tompkins.
Although the style of this letter is more florid than gene-
rally characterizes the composition of Mr. Van Buren, I
have good reasons to believe that he was its real author.
But, by whomsoever it may have been written, it affords
evidence that the talents of its author were of the highest
order.

These proceedings, and the correspondence which
grew out of them, occupied, mainly, the public attention,
until the meeting of the legislature.

The advantage derived from the great personal populari-
ty of Gov. Tompkins was nearly balanced by the universal

33

514 ' POLITICAL HISTORY

confidence entertainecl by all parties in the integrity and
purity oi the motives of Mr. Mclntyre. In private life
all men admired and loved him, and in the discharge of
the highly responsible duties of the office of comptroller
for many years, and under various administrations, he had
afforded such proof of his fidelity to the state that no man,
even in those times, ventured to charge him with inten-
tional error.

The legislature met early in January, 1820, when John
C. Spencer, of Ontario county, was chosen speaker by the
joint votes of the Clintonians and federalists. Mr. Spen-
cer received sixty-four votes, Peter Sharpe fifty, (probably
the whole Bucktail vote,) and there were seven scattering
votes. The assembly, at this time, contained a prodigious
array of talent. In the senate the most distinguished new
member was Gideon Granger, the late post-master gene-
ral. He, beyond question, was one of New-England's
most talented sons, but a long course of active life, and
rather too much indulgence in living, had impaired his
health, which, together with his advanced age, rendered
him not fitted for the new theatre on which he was now
called to act.

In consequence of a failure to elect a senator of the
United States by the last legislature, the state was now
but partially represented in one branch of the national
government, and therefore the attention of the present
legislature was early called to that subject. It will be
recollected, that in the autumn of 1818, and early part of
the year 1819, the honest republicans of the state were
alarmed at the report that Mr. Clinton was about to be-
tray the republican interest of the state by procuring the
re-election of Rufus King to the senate of the United
States. What, then, will be the surprise of the reader,
when he is informed that the very men who encouraged
the circulation of these heinous charges against Mr. Clin-

OF NEW-YORK. 5 15

ton, in less than twelve months afterwards came out open-
ly and decidedly in favor of Mr. King, and alleged as the
reasons for their support, the conduct of Mr. King during
the late war, and in the senate of the United States, which
were equally as well known to them in December, I8l8,
as in December, 1819, and, as a further reason, that he
and his friends had the merit of being opposed to Mr.
Clinton ! Yet it was even so.

Shortly before the meeting of the legislature a pamphlet
was circulated from Albany, addressed and sent through
the post-office to all the republican members of the legis-
lature, in favor of the nomination and election, by the re-
publican party, of Rufus King. This pamphlet was the
joint production of Mr. Van Buren and Gov. Marcy, and
of course was well written.

The pamphlet admitted Mr. King to be a federalist,
but it divided the federalists into three classes, as their
political characters were developed during the late war.

The first class, it alleged, consisted of men who had
imbibed strong predilections for the common enemy, and
who were so inflamed by party malignity and heated by
ambition, as to be determined to rule or ruin.

The second, were drilled party men, who thought the
war impolitic, and therefore opposed the administration^
and the third class were men who, although opposed to
the men who controlled the national administration,
deemed it their duty to join, and did actually join, in aid
of war measures. To the third class, the pamphlet al-
leged, Mr. King belonged, and in proof of it, his conduct
in the senate was referred to, his call upon Gov. Tomp-
kins, in the year 1814, and his declarations on that occa-
sion, which I have before stated. The pamphleteers fur-
ther urged Mr. King's revolutionary services, and they
add, as another reason why he deserved their support,
that he and all his friends, were opposed to the re-elec-

516 POLITICAL HISTORY

tion of Mr. Clinton. " There is no doubt ofit^" say they;
and to fortify this assertion they refer to the vote of John
A. King, against Gen. German for speaker, at the com-
mencement of the last session.

Why should the same politicians who, in January, 1819,
denounced the support of Rufus King, as United States
senator, as the most heinous of political sins, without any
chanoe in the condition of the country, and upon traits of
character developed, and acts done by Mr. King in 1814
and 1815, which were as well known to them at that time
as at any time subsequent — why, I say, should the same
politicians, in December, 1819, (for the pamphlet was
published the 19th of that month,) declare that the same
Rufus King ought to be supported for the office, and vir-
tually threaten every man who refused to do so with ex-
communication from their political church 1 The pam-
phleteers attempt to assign some reasons for this, but they
are, as obviously they must have been, worthless and pu-
erile. The object undoubtedly was, to draw in a portion
of the federalists to the support of Mr. Tompkins, at the
next election; an object which they accomplished, though
not to the extent they anticipated. On the other hand,
the Clintonians dared not oppose the election of Mr. King,
because they feared, if they did so, they should lose the
support of Mr. Clinton by the federalists. At the same
time, the federalists in the legislature, led by Mr. Oakley,
had not self respect enough to spurn the support of a
candidate thus imposed on them by men who were de-
nouncing their party as so contaminated that Mr. Clinton
deserved political death for holding any intercourse with
them. Without intending, or feeling, personally, the
least disrespect to Mr. King, who, I believe, was a good
as well as a great man, I am compelled to say, that the
motives which induced the Bucktails to support him, ap-
pear to me to have been entirely unjustifiable ; that the

OF NEW- YORK. 517

motives which governed the federal and republican Clin-
tonians were equally inexcusiable- and that, in relation to
Mr. K.'s Clintonian republican and federal supportersjthey
are also justly chargeable w^ith a truckling and mean poli-
cy. 1 was myself one who was guilty of this meanness,
and I therefore speak the more freely of the transaction.
I was willing, and I expressed myself so, in 1819, not-
withstanding the denunciations of the Bucktails, to have
voted for Mr. King, but I could not do so without desert^
ing my partyj and never did I give a vote with so much
reluctance, and of which I felt myself so much ashamed,
(solely in consequence of the manner in which that vote
was extorted from me,) as the vote I gave for Mr. King,
in 1820. I ought to have had independence and honesty
enough to have voted according to the dictates of my own
conscience, in both cases.

Mr. King was unanimously re-elected.

In December, 1819, the territory of Missouri applied
to congress for admission into the Union as a state; ex-
hibiting at the same time a copy of her constitution, by
which negro slavery was expressly tolerated. An objec-
tion was raised against this clause in their constitution, by
Gen. James Talmadge from this state, and a long and an-
gry debate ensued, in congress, upon that question. Much
excitement was produced in this state by the discussion,
and the feeling was apparently universal here, in favor of
the ground assumed by Gen. Talmadge. The subject
was taken into consideration in the assembly, and a reso-
lution offered by Mr. McNeil, of Oneida county, as chair-
man of a committee to whom the matter was referred, in-
structing the senators, and requesting the members of the
house of representatives, in congress, from the state of
New-York, to support the ground taken by Gen. Tal-
madge. This resolution passed both houses of our legis-
lature unanimously.

518 POLITICAL HISTORY

On the 4th of February, the assembly proceeded to the
choice of a council of appointment, and John D. Ditmis
of the southern, John Lounsbury of the middle, Levi Ad-
ams of the eastern, and Ephraim Hart of the western dis-
tricts, were chosen by the joint votes of the federal and
Clintonian members. All, except Mr. Ditmis, were Clin-

tonians.

A few sheriffs and some other officers were removed by
this council from political considerations, but, in general,
no very important changes were made by it, principally, I
presume, for the reason that by this time the offices were
nearly all filled by Clintonians. The appointments in the
western district were mainly regulated by Mr. Hart, and
it is due to him to say, that Mr. Evans, a Bucktail sena-
tor, in accounting to me for the reason why Mr. Clinton
received so large a majority in the western district, in
April, 1820, ascribed it to the very judicious manner in
which the appointments had been made, under the advise-
ment of Mr. Hart.

On the 26th of January, a charge was made in the
New-York American to the following purport: that in the
year 1811, or beginning of 1812, the applicants for char-
tering the Bank of America had agreed with Wm. W. Van
Ness, Elisha Williams, and Jacob R. Van Rensselaer, in or-
der to procure their aid in the application, that the bank,
when chartered, should loan to the Columbia County Bank
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, for the term of
fifteen years, at an interest of six per cent; that the Bank
of Columbia should pay the interest annually to Mr.
Williams and his associates, who were to retain in their
hands for their own private use, three per cent, that iS)
one-half the whole annual interest. That after the char-
ter was granted and the bank was organized, the directors
refused to sanction this agreement, but proposed to pay
Messrs. Williams, Van Ness and Van Rensselaer twenty

OF NEW- YORK. 519

thousand dollars, in satisfaction of the agreement, which
proposition was accepted by Mr. Williams, in behalf of
himself and his associates, and the money was accordingly
paid to Mr. Williams, but that after receiving the money,
Mr. W. refused to divide any portion of it with his part-
ners, unless they would agree that a fourth person
should be allowed to receive an equal share of it.

On the 28th of January, Gen. Root produced in the
assembly the paper containing this article, and offered the
following resolution:

" Resolved^ That a committee be appointed to inquire
into the conduct of William W. Van Ness, Esq. one of
the justices of the supreme court of this state, and report
their opinion whether the said William W. Van Ness hath
so acted in his official capacity as to require the interposi-
tion of the constitutional power of this house, and that
said committee have power to send for persons and
papers."

This resolution, together with a preamble, stating the
grounds upon which the inquiry was directed, proposed
by Col. McKown, a member from Albany, was adopted,
and a committee appointed: the following are the names
of the gentlemen who composed the committee: — Messrs.
McKown, Root, Fox, Irving, John Miller, Walbridge,
Jedediah Miller, Nelson and Vail.

It is unnecessary to go into a detail of the proceedings
■which followed the adoption of this resolution. It will
be sufficient to state that proofs were taken before the
committee, that some circumstances were disclosed which
rendered the conduct of some of the gentlemen accused
suspicious, but that the majority of the house ultimately
decided that the proofs did not warrant an impeachment of
Judge Van Ness. The members of the house generally
took sides for or against an impeachment, according to
the party to which they belonged j that is the federalists

520 POLITICAL HISTORY

and Clintonians resisted and the bucktails generally favored
an impeachment.

Judge Van Ness who was a man of great sensibility,
was deeply affected by these procedings, and it is said,
that his feelings, eventually induced an impaired state of
health from which he never recovered.*

• Mr. Elisha Williams was examined on oath by the committee, and his depo
«ition as taken by them is annexed to their report.

He stated that before the bank was chartered he made an agreement with persons
■who assumed to be its agents, that the Bank of Columbia should keep its accounts
with the Bank of America; that the latter bank should allow the former lo over-
draw its account lo the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, on paying
an interest of three per cent only; that this arrangement should continue fifteen
years, and that this contract was mace with Mr. Wiliiams individually and for
his individual benefit. He acted solely for himself, and had a right to make such
terms with the Bank of Columbia as he and the directors might mutually agree
upon. Judge Van Ness knew nothing of this contract until after the 6anA- teas
thaHered in 1SI3.

Before the Bank of America went into operation, Mr. Wolcott, the president
proposed to Mr. Williams a material change of the terms of the contract, alleg-
ing that from the probable future condition of the monetary affairs of the counti-y,
the bank would be unable to loan so large a sum of money for so great a length
of time, at so low an interest. He, therefore; proposed to stipulate that the
Bank of Columbia might overdraw its account in the Bank of America, to the
amount of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for fifteen years, paying an in-
terest at the rate of six per cent, and that Mr. Williams and two other responsible
persons for him should become sureties for the faithful performance of the en-
gagements of the Bank of Columbia. Mr. Wolcott further proposed in considera
tion, that the first contract should be abandoned, and the proposed one adopt, d in
lieu of it to pay Mr. Williams twenty thousand dollars. 5Ir. Wolcott further of-
fered to accept as sureties for Mr. Williams, Jacob R. Van Rensselaer and Judge
Van Ness. These propositions were accepted by Mr. Williams, and he applied to
Mr. Van Rensselaer to become one of his sureties, to which he consented on con-
dition that Williams would pay him five thousand dollars out of the twenty thou-
sand he was to receive from the Bank of America, to which Williams agreed.
Mr. W. then applied to Judge Van Ness, and requested him also to become his
surety, to which he r^ adily consented without fee or reward ; but Williams in
sisted on paying, and did pay him the same sum he paid Van Rensselaer, namely,
five thousand dollars. [See Assembly Journal of 1S20, p. 833.]

Assuming this statement lo be true, and it would be extremely uncharitable to
doubt the oath of such a man as Elisha Williams, I cannot perceive anything in
the transaction which in the slightest degree ought to tarnish the character of
Judge Van Ness. The deposition of Mr. Williams was strengthened and support-
ed by the testimony of J. R.Van Rensselaer and Charles Newbold, one of the
agents and directors of the Bank of America.

Judge Van Ness, it appeared, had exerted his influence in favor of granting the
charter for the bank, and the fact that he had received five thousind doll.Tfs, which
came originally from that institution, was urged as an evidence that his motivei
were impure. But Mi Williams testified that the federalist-, ag a party, were anx-

OF NEVV-yORK. 521

The governor in his speech at the opening of the
session recommended the call of a convention with pow-
ers (limited in the act by which the call should be made)
to abolish the council of appointment, and consider on
such other amendments to the constitution as should be
designated by the legislature. Had he done this one year
before, and his friends supported his recommendation, it
would probably have been better for him and for the state
also.

A bill was brought in and discussed, but as the assem
bly greatly differed, not only about the details but the
principles which ought to be embraced in it, it failed of
becoming a law. Most of the Bucktails were for calling
a convention with unlimited powers.

Early in the session, the comptroller communicated to
the assembly a history of his proceedings under the act
for " the settlement of the accounts of D. D. Tompkins;"
stating the difference in opinion between him and the vice-
president in relation to the construction of that act, and
the reasons upon which his opinion was founded. This
communication was referred to a select committee of
which Jedediah Miller of Schoharie was chairman.

On the 16th of March, the committee made a very
long and able report, in which they examined with
great minuteness, the several matters involved in the
controversy, and finally recommended the adoption of
the following resolution : —

" Resolved, as the sense of this house, that the con-
duct of the comptroller in regard to the auditing and
settling the accounts of Daniel D. Tompkins, Esq. late

ious to incorporate this company, because it was known that a majority of the stock
would be takea up by federalists, and that thus an institution might be created
capable of counteracting the political influence of the Manhattan Company. AH
who knew Judge Van \ess, well know that he was much more desirous of politi-
cal asccudency, than pecuuiary gains. Is it not then easy to account for his "xer-
tions in favor of chartering the Bank of America, without imputing to him coiiUpt
motives ?

522 POLITICAL HISTORY

governor of this state, both previous to, and under the
act of the 13th of April, 1819, has been that of a firm,
faithful and intelligent public officer, and meets the full
and entire approbation of this house."

The merits of this report were discussed with great
ability for many days. Those who most distinguished
themselves in support of the views presented by the
committee, were, Messrs. Oakley, Spencer, (the speak-
er,) E. Williams, McKown, C. H. Ruggles, now a dis-
tinguished judge of the third circuit, Ogden of Otsego,
Jno. Miller of Cortland, Fox of Warren, H. Camp of
Tompkins, and Tibbits of Troy. The most powerful
and efficient laen in the opposition, were Messrs. Root,
Sharpe, Roma.n,Ulshoeffer, J. T. Irving and Seymour. I
have said that this assembly contained much talent; of this
assertion the debates on this question, and on the proceed-
ings against Judge Van Ness, furnished a conclusive and
splendid demonstration. I was a member of the house of
representatives of the United States, and of course heard
the discussions of that body for two successive ses-
sions, and 1 have on several occasions witnessed the
debates in the house of commons in England, and al-
though in those bodies there were individuals possessing
higher qualities as statesmen, and parliamentary orators
than in the New- York assembly, yet if the whole num-
ber of public speakers in those bodies were compared,
with the whole corps of debaters in the assembly of 1820,
I do not think the latter would suffer by a comparison
with the former. I may be incompetent to judge — I may
be partial to the inhabitants of my own state, and of
course I may misjudge, but this is my honest opinion.
For skill in argument, parliamentary tact, pungency of
wit, and clear, sound, logical powers of mind, few men of
the age would, I imagine, have excelled Messrs. Oakley,
E. Williams, E. Root, J. C. Spencer, Ulshoeffer,Romain,

OF NEW-YORK. 523

and McKown. The last named gentleman was a young
memberjand distinguished himself most in the discussions
which grew out of the resolution of inquiry into the con-
duct of Juflge Van Ness, proposed by Gen. Root. It is
deeply to be regretted, that he did not longer continue a
member of our legislative assemblies- His talents which
are of the first order, seemed to me to be particularly
adapted for usefulness in those bodies.

On the 12th of January, Mr. Van Buren offered a reso-
lution in the senate, calling on the comptroller to report
to that house whether the accounts between the state and
D. D. Tompkins had been settled according to the act of
the last session, and if not, then to transmit to the senate
a copy of the claim which had been exhibited by the
late governor against the state, and generally the action
of the comptroller on that subject.

In answer to this call, Mr. Mclntyre presented a con-
cise view of the transactions between him and the vice-
president on that subjectj and that answer was referred to
a select committee of which Mr. Van Buren was chair-
man.

On the 9th of March, the last mentioned committee
made an able and eloquent report to the senate, in which
they reviewed the proceedings under the act of the last
session, and arrived at the conclusion that the comptroller
ought to have allowed Gov. Tompkins a premium of twelve
and a half per cent on one million fifty thousand dollars,
which would produce one hundred and thirty-one thousand
two hundred and fifty dollars; and would leave a balance
due him according to the estimate of the committee, of
eleven thousand eight hundred and seventy dollars and
fifty cents; and they reported a bill for the payment to
the late governor of that balance, upon his releasing all his
claims against the state.

524 POLITICAL HISTORY

It may be proper to state that it was admitted by
the vice-president and his friends, that the services for
which he claimed compensation were rendered to the Uni-
ted States, and that the losses he had sustained had been
incurred in their service, and therefore, that the United
States government and not the state of New- York, ought
to remunerate him for those serivces and losses, and accord-
ingly the original bill directed the comptroller to debit the
United States with the amount of money allowed by him
to the vice-president for sercives, &c.

When the report of the committee, together with the bill
came up in the senate, the argument which one would
naturally have supposed would have been rather a dry law
argument upon the construction of the act of 1819, and
the intention of the legislature in passing it, probably
with a view of exciting odium against the comptroller,
was chiefly directed to the items which had been claimed
by the vice-president, and rejected by the comptroller.
This course of argument however was excusable, because
in discussing the same question in the assembly, the Clin-
tonians had criticised with great severity many of the
charges made by the vice-president, probably with a view
of exciting public odium against him.

The only speech made in support of the report and bill,
was made by Mr. Van Buren. It occupied a part of two
days, and was one of the most ingenious, able and elo-
quent speeches I ever heard. It has been the custom of
the opponents of this gentleman, both in the state and
nation, to give him credit for great tact and management as
a mere politician, and to deny that he possesses those high
and exalted powers of mind which always distinguish the
great statesman and the commanding parliamentary orator.
But any fair minded man, w^ho has heard Mr. Van Buren on
great and important questions in our legislative assemblies,
whether state or national, will not hesitate to award him

OF NEW-VORK. 525

the meed of high merit. It is on these occasions and
more especially in his efforts as a lawyer in our highest
courts of judicature, that Mr. Van Buren has afforded
decisive demonstration of the most commanding and
splendid intellectual powers. In the senate, the opposition
to the report and bill was feeble. Mr. Granger after-
wards published a written argument, which in conse-
quence of ill-health, was not delivered in the senate, pur-
porting to be an answer to Mr. Van Buren, but it had lit-
tle effect on the public mind.

The report was concurred in, and the bill was passed
by a majority of nearly two to one.

When this bill from the senate came into the assembly,
it was referred to a committee of which Mr. Oakley was
chairman. On the 6th of April, he made a report against
it. That report assumed that the proceedings 'of the
comptroller, had been, in the judgment of the committee,
correct; that no further legislation than that contained in
the act of 1819, ought to be had on the subject; that the
vice-president must seek his relief under that law, in the
same way, and on the same footing of all other citizensj
and that he ought to be satisfied with the construction
which should be given to the statute by the judicial tribu-
nals of the country, and with a view to obtain that con-
struction, the committee recommended an amendment to
the senate's bill by striking out the whole of it except
the enacting clause, and inserting in lieu thereof a provi-
sion requiring the comptroller in case the vice-president
should not pay the balance declared at the accounting
office to be due from him, by the first day of August, then
next, to commence a suit against him for the recovery of
the same; in which suit the vice-president should be permit-
ted to offesett his claim for premiums under the act of 1819,
This report was confirmed by the majority in the assem-

526 POLITICAL HISTORY

bly, and the bill passed as amended by the select com
mittee; and here all action in the two houses ended.

In conclusion, I have to remark, that notwithstanding
this controversy continued so long in the legislature, and
among the people, and excited so much asperity and bit-
terness, the real object of the two parties, so far as the
same was to be effected by legislation, did not materially
differ. Both parties admitted that the services of Gov.
Tompkins during the war, had been great and arduous; both
admitted that he had not intentionally wasted or appro-
priated to his own use the public moneys; both admitted
the comptroller to be a correct, able and faithful ac-
counting officer; both were willing and desirous that the
accounts of the vice-president with the state should be
balanced without the payment by him of a single cent,
and neither would consent that after balancing his ac
counts any considerable sum should be paid to him. The
difference so far as principle was concerned, consisted in
the manner of doing that which all believed ought to be
done. The one party desired to pay him, as a debt, say
one hundred and twenty thousand dollars; the other wish-
ed to allow him that sum in consideration of his losses,
and as a gratuitous reward for his services. Had a bill
been brought in, reciting those services and losses, and
the confused state of the vice-president's vouchers, and
accounts, and directing the comptroller in consideration
thereof, to balance his accounts, it must in any stage of
this controversy have passed both houses unanimously; and
such should have been the bill passed in 1819. The notion
of charging the amount allowed to the vice-president, to
the United States, was a humbug, and known to be such.
Hence it is most evident that the reason the controversy
assumed the shape it ultimately did, and of the adverse
action of the two houses was, that both parties thought

OF NEW-YORK.

527

they could make political capital out of it, and each par-
ty thought it could make more than the other.

On the 18th of January, a caucus of republican mem-
bers of the legislature opposed to the re-election of Gov.
Clinton, was held at the capitol. Sixty-four members
were in attendance, of whom, fifty-two on balloting voted
for Tompkins as the candidate for governor, and he was
therefore declared duly nominated.

Gen. Benjamin Mooers of Plattsburgh, of the senate,
was nominated the candidate for lieutenant governor.

Gen. Mooers had been nominated and elected at the
very last election a senator from the eastern district, by
the Clintonians as a Clintonian. Here is another instance
of a senator elected, professing to belong to one party
and immediately or shortly after, declaring himself to be
of the other. This is a sort of political swindling, — a
cheating by false pretences. Probably Gen. Mooers did
not take this view of the question, for he was apparently
an amiable and good man, and I believe, as a neighbor
and citizen, was universally esteemed.

The republican friends of Gov. Clinton in the legisla-
ture were at this session in the minority. It was not,
therefore, thought judicious to make a legislative nomina-
tion. In order to prevent a public exhibition of the mea-
greness of our number, making a merit of necessity, we af-
fected to disapprove of selections of gubernatorial candi-
dates by legislative caucuses. Mr. Clinton and John Tay-
ler were nominated for re-election at a meeting of the
citizens of Albany, of which Mr. William James was
chairman.

The state candidates of both parties were now in the
field, and the campaign was fairly and vigorously opened.
On the 11th of April, a most singular document, hav-
ing reference to the coming election, was issued from the
press at Albany, and circulated through the state.

628 POLITICAL HISTORY

Ever since, and perhaps before the contest for speaker
in 1819, and for an United States senator during the
same session, a party among the federalists, of whom
William A. Duer of Albany, and Charles King of New-
York, were the most active, seemed to have been formed
with the avowed object at all events of putting down De
Witt Clinton.

The sons of the late Gen. Hamilton and of Mr. Rufus
King, early and unanimously formed a part of this asso-
ciation. From an article published by Mr. William Cole-
man in the Evening Post, a few days after the election in
1820, it appears that he too was inclined to join in the
combination. From a community of feeling, prejudices,
principles, interests and views, several distinguished federal
gentlemen residing in various counties in the state, also
united eventually with them in political action. One of
the strongest objections they seemed to have entertained
against Mr. Clinton, was that his party partook of the
character of a personal party; that those whom he was
most inclined to favor, were continually lauding him, and
that there was among his confidential friends and favor-
ites a total want of independence, of character and a sup-
pleness of disposition, (which by the by may have been
partially true when applied to many of Mr. C.'s old
friends in New-York,) disgusting to the feelings of all
truly high minded and honorable men who entertained a
decent self respect. From frequently urging this view
of the character of Gov. Clinton and his confidential
friends, this class of federalists acquired the name of
" HIGH minded" federalists.

On the 14th of April, these gentlemen, to the number
of fifty, issued an address to the people containing an ex-
pose of their political views, and avowing their determi-
nation to support the election of Mr. Tompkins, and the
reason upon which that determination rested. This is the

OF NEW-YORK.

529

document which I have characterised as singular; and I
do so, not on account of the determination made by its
signers, but because of the reasons given by them for such
determination; and here let me remark, that so formida-
ble an array of talent, wealth, influence in society, and
indeed personal worth, embracing so many men and so
scattered through the state, I do not believe, can be found
.n the annals of our political parties, who combined
for the accomplishment of a single political object, but
who carried so few of the rank and file men with them,
as did these fifty high minded federalists.

To show that I do not overrate the talents, standing and
weight of character of these gentlemen, I give the names
of those who signed the address which fell under my
observation :

Peter Jay Monroe,
J. O. Hoffman,
Jonathan Hasbrouck,
Geo. D. Wickham,
Morris S. Miller,
Melancthon Wheeler,
Levi Callendar,
Joshua Whitney,
John Suydam,
R W. Stoddard,
David Hudson,
H. Montgomery,
H. B. Bender,
Geo. W. Tibbits,
Thomas Mumford,
John A. King,
Elisha B. Strong,
Geo. F. Tallman,
Joshua A. De Witt,
Charles A. Foot,

34

James Lynch,
Glen Cuyler,
John L. Wendell,
Charles King,
A. B. Hasbrouck,
T. S. Morgan,
Jeffrey Wisner,
James A. Hamilton,
Ebenezer Griffin,
John C. Morris,
Livingston Billings,
Tracy Robinson,
Johnson Verplanck,
Henry Brown,
Thomas J. Delancy,
Thos. G. Waterman^
John C. Hamilton,
John Duer,
Jas. Clapp,
Wm. P. Sherman,

630 POLITICAL HISTORY

Isaac Dubois, Elisha Ely

Zeb. R. Shepherd, H. Vanderlyn,

Alanson Austin, W. W, Mumford,

Garrit Post, Wm. A, Duer.

In their address, they commence by affirming that the
federal party — a party of which they claim to have been
members, and of whose principles they profess their entire
approbation, no longer exists. They say, as a party it is
dissolved and annihilated, and that even the bonds " of
mutual confidence and private regard are severed, perhaps
forever."

They approve of the doings and administration of the
general government, and they affirm that the federalists
have now " no ground of principle," on which to stand,
and therefore declare their intention of uniting with the
great republican party of the state and union. They do
not object to the capacity of Mr. Clinton, to his morals
nor to the measures he had recommended. The sole
ground of objection against him is, that they allege he
is attempting to form " a personal party."

The palpable absurdity with which this address strikes
my mind is this, that while every school boy in the state
knew that Mr. Van Buren and his friends entirely approved
of the measures recommended by Gov. Clinton, admitted
his competence as to talents, and his virtues as a private
citizen, and that they opposed him solely and exclusively
on the ground that X\\q^ federal party did exist in the state,
and that Mr. Clinton was secretly inclined to favor itj
yet the high minded gentlemen opposed Mr. Clinton
because, as they aijeged, the federal party did not existy
and thereupon joined the party who held the contrary
position.

The case presents this most extraordinary spectacle.
Two parties unite to oppose the election of a governor,
neither of which charge upon him a want of capacity, or

OF MEW-YORK. 531

integrity, or utter a solitary complaint against his mea-
sures. The one party declare that the federal party does
not exist; and yet it joins the other, " the great republi-
can party," whose only bond of union is a belief that the
federal party does Aist, which proposition the high
minded men had publicly avowed was untrue. Such are
some of the inconsistencies of politicians!

The election was very close. The anti-Clintonian
party, which now fairly deserves to be denominated the
republican party, succeeded in electing a majority of the
members of the assembly, and in two of the senatorial
districts, notwithstanding which, Mr. Clinton was re-
elected by a majority of one thousand four hundred and
fifty-seven votes.

The senators this year elected were Walter Bowne and
John Lefferts, from the southern; Wm. C. Bouck, Tilly
Lynde, and John Miller, from the middle; Ephraim Hart,
Oliver Forward and Elijah Mills, from the western dis-
tricts.

532 POLITICAL HISTORY

CHAPTER XXVI.

FROM MAY 1, 1820, TO MAY I, 1821.

The result of the election, so far as respects political
power, was a complete triumph to the opponents of the
governor. In the senate they had for some time had a
strong majority, and the new senators elected added to
that majority. In the assembly the majority against the
governor was eighteen. How did it happen that Mr.
Clinton, when his friends were slain around him, after a
competition with a man who, perhaps, was personally
more popular than any man the state ever produced,
should have walked off the field in triumph ?

Among the causes to which this result is to be ascribed,
the following appear to me most prominent:

The people are always sensitive, and justly so, in rela-
tion to the management and expenditure of their money.
If the vice-president was popular as a governor, Mr. Mc-
Intyre was equally so as a citizen, and as a faithful guar-
dian of the treasury; and no doubt many of the personal
and political friends of the late governor suspected that
there was something wrong in his accounts, and in his
management of the public funds, and withheld from him
their votes on that account; and I think the inference
may be fairly sustained, that he lost more from the suspi-
cion, than he gained from the sympathy of his republican
friends.

Notwithstanding the division produced by the corps of
high minded federalists, the great body of the federalists
gave Mr. Clinton a more unanimous support than they
had done either Mr. Burr or Gov. Lewis. As a party,
the name of Tompkins, was peculiarly odious to them.

OF NEW-YORK. 533

Their repeated, though unsuccessful contests with him,
had increased, rather than diminished their hostility. Mr.
Clinton, had never deceived them. From the year
1813, when he and many of his most deroted friends sup-
ported Van Rensselaer against Tompkins, he had never
made professions to them which he had not endeavored to
fulfil. They admired his indomitable firmness and moral
courage.

Intelligent men of all parties entertained a high regard
for his talents. On all occasions Clinton manifested great
respect for literary merit, and the institutions of science.
This brought into his support the friends and patrons of
those institutions, and, generally, the scientific men of the
state.

But the most effectual cause of his triumph was the
able, ardent, and uniform support he had given to the ca-
nal policy. He had, from the origin of that policy, com-
mitted himself in its favor, and had boldly staked his po-
litical fortunes on its issue. He was its uncompromising
friend, while we have seen that Gov. Tompkins had stu-
diously avoided any direct commitment in favor of the
measure, and many of his most ardent supporters, particu-
larly in the southern district of the state, were yet open
and, virulent opponents of the whole scheme of internal
improvements. The shrewd, clear sighted yankee farmers
of the west saw and appreciated all this. Hence the
strong majorities for Clinton in the great republican coun-
ties of Ontario and Genesee; and hence the majorities for
him in the eastern and western districts, those districts
being most directly interested in the accomplishment of
the great work. The returns of the election showed a
majority for De Witt Clinton, in the eastern district, of
two thousand three hundred and fifty-two, and, in the
western, three thousand four hundred and fifty-two, while
the middle district gave the vice-president a majority of

534

POLITICAL HISTORY

one thousand one hundretl and sixteen, and the southern
three thousand two hundred and thirty-one.

The result of the election however, had, in every part of
the state except the western district, and a small portion
of the eastern, drawn together and formed into one body
nearly all the old republican party, in opposition to the
executive authority of the state.

This state of things was extremely awkward and embar-
rassing to the few republicans who still continued to yield
to the governor their support. We felt that we were a
mere handful of men dependent on the federalists for our
political existence. We knew that that party, whom we
had formerly so zealously, and some of us efficiently op-
posed, were as well aware of the true state of things as
we could be. Perhaps it was jealousy — perhaps it was
unfounded suspicion — but I confess I thought the federal-
ists regarded us as an Incumbrance upon them; or rather,
somewhat as the rich man regards his poor relatives, who
have been cast upon his charity and whom he feels bound
in honor to maintain, although the expenditure for that
maintenance goes to diminish an estate which he has a
right exclusively to enjoy.

But, if the federalists did entertain these feelings, had
we any cause of complaining of them on that account 1
From the nature of the case were not those feelings ex-
tremely natural ? We were a fraction of the republican
party, which party held the control of the state. We
detached ourselves from the majority of our party and by
the aid of the federalists, since the commencement of the
year 1819, had controlled the patronage and political
power of the state, and yet, we still professed to be op-
posed to the federalists. We declared that our opinions of
their principles and measures remained unchanged, and we,
who were a small minority, when compared with the
federalists, and a still smaller minority of the republican

OF NEW-YORK. 535

party, claimed an almost exclusive control, and vastly
more than our share, of the state patronage. Was this
reasonable 1 Could such a state of things last 1 To
illustrate its absurdity I will suppose the federal and re-
publican parties, in 1819, to have consisted of twelve men
only; seven of whom were republicans and fi\e federalists.
I will suppose that A. and B.,two of the republicans, de-
tach themselves from the seven, and by the aid of the five
federalists seize upon the state patronage and use it all, or
nearly all, for their own benefit. It is most evident that
so unfair and unequal a state of things could not long ex-
ist. The five federalists, knowing that A. and B. held
power entirely at their pleasure, would either seize it
themselves, or a portion of them would go over to the five
republicans, with whom they could, at least, have an equal
share in the division of the spoils.

It is most obvious that one or two axioms may be de-
duced from this view of the matter. First — that there
can, (in general,) be but two political parties in a free
state. Second — that when a fractional portion of the party
in the majority differ in opinion with the majority of their
party, and if that difference is so fundamentally important
as, in their judgment, would render the success of the ad-
verse party beneficial to the country, they ought to with-
draw from their old associates and join as rank and file
men the adverse party; but in no case ought they to at-
tempt to form a third party, in expectation of the aid of
the minority party of the two great parties. It is an ex-
pectation which can never, from the nature and constitu-
tion of man and of human society, be realized.

True it is, if an individual believes the object and end
of both the great political parties to be injurious to the
country, he has the right, and it may be his duty to with-
draw himself entirely from the political field; and if there
be a sufficient number of individuals who entertain similar

536 POLITICAL HISTORY

Views, a new party may be formed; but in this case it is
the duty of the new, or third party, to make war indis-
criminately on each of the two existing parties. But such
a state of things can seldom exist long. It is as unnatu-
ral as a battle between three ships at sea, each fighting
against the other two.

The title of the Albany Register was, about this time,
changed to that of the New- York Statesman, and it was
now under the exclusive management of Mr. Carter.

On the 25th of August Judge Buel transferred all his
interest in the Albany jVrgus to Moses I. Cantine and
Isaac Q. Leake. Mr. Cantine, it will be recollected, was
a brother-in-law of Mr. Van Buren.

That paper, under the judicious and prudent control of
Mr. Buel, had acquired a very great and commanding in-
fluence in the democratic party. A more discreet newspa-
per editor than Mr. B. could not be selected from the whole
corps editorial in Ihe state. Although not brilliant, he
was wise; but the profits accruing from the state printing
were, and are, very considerable, and Mr. Buel had, by
industry and good management, acquired a handsome for-
tune during the six years he had been state printer; it was
therefore, thought reasonable that he should give place to
other persons,who were supposed to have equal, or perhaps
superior claims on the democratic party. The contract
was probably, in reality, made, rather with the leaders of
the democratic party than with Messrs. Cantine and Leake
— the last named gentleman stipulating to pay Mr. Buel
a round sum of money for his printing establishment and
the favor to it, and the party leaders agreeing that Cantine
and Leake, who, by the by, were both entirely ignorant
of the printing business, one of them having been bred a
lawyer and the other brought up in a bank, should be ap-
pomted state printers. This bargain was ultimately car-

OF KEW-YORK. 537

ried into effect, and sanctioned by an act of the legisla-
ture.

On the same 25ih day of August a meeting was held at
Tammany Hall, of which Stephen Allen was chairman,
and Adrian Hagerman secretary; at which it was resolved
that a convention, with unlimited powers to amend the
constitution, ought to be called.

Heretofore the republicans opposed to Mr. Clinton, as
well as those who supported him, had differed in opinion
in relation to the details of a bill for the call of a conven-
tion. The re-eleetion of Mr. Clinton had probably pro-
duced, in the ranks of the democracy, an unanimity of
opinion on that subject. They perceived that the only
sure means of ridding themselves of him, was by a change
of some of the principles of the government; and they
availed themselves, with great skill and adroitness, of the
propensity of the people for an alteration of the constitu-
tion, to effect that object. I speak now, not of the mass,
but of some of the considerations which probably influ-
enced mere politicians.

The meeting at Tammany was, no doubt, the result o^
a consultation of the party leaders in the state; for the
democratic newspapers generally, throughout the country,
now advocated a convention with powers unrestricted.

On account of the approaching presidential election a
session of the legislature, in November, was required for
the appointment of electors.

Peter Sharpe, of New-York, was elected speaker of the
assembly. He received sixiy-nine votes for that office,
and John C. Spencer fifty-two. Derick L. Vanderheyden
was chosen clerk by the following vote: — D. L. Vander-
heyden sixty-three, and Aaron Clarke sixty-two votes.
Mr. Clark was an excellent clerk, but not a very decided
politician; both parties claimed him, or rather he occa-
sionally claimed both parties. A majority of the reformed

538 POLITICAL HISTORY

democratic party was now found, but barely strong
enough to oust him by one vote. In a pecuniary point
of view, and perhaps in all other respects, his ejection
from the clerkship of the assembly was beneficial to him.
He removed shortly afterw^ards to New- York, and I
scarcely need add, he has since been twice elected mayor
of that city.

The governor's speech, which was written with his usual
ability, contained many highly important suggestions and
recommendations.

He advised the passage of a law for the choice of presi-
dential electors by the people, by general ticket, to con-
tinue in force until the United States constitution should
be so amended as to require the electors to be chosen in
separate districts, throughout the union.

He protested against the interference of the officers of
the national government with our state elections. On that
subject, he said: — " Our government is complex in its or-
ganization, and it is essentially necessary to preserve the
state governments in their purity and energy. A free
government could never exist in a country so extensive as
the United States, without a judicious combination of the
federal and representative principles. The apprehensions
which some of our wisest statesmen enteitained, at the
formation of the constitution, that the state governments
would constantly encroach on the powers of the national
government, appear not to have been realized. The prac-
tical tendency has been in the opposite direction. The
power of the general administration has increased with
the extension of its patronage. And if the officers under
its appointment shall see fit, as an organized and disci-
plined corps, to interfere in the state elections, I trust that
there will be found a becoming disposition in the people,
to resist these alarming attempts upon the purity and inde-
pendence of their local governments: for, whenever the

OF KEW-YORK. 539

pillars which support the edifice of the general govern-
ment are undermined and prostrated, the whole fabric of
national freedom and prosperity will be crushed in ruin.
I have considered it my solemn duty to protest against
these unwarrantable intrusions of extraneous influence, and
I hope that the national legislature will not be regardless
of its duty on this occasion."

He also again recommended a state convention to amend
the constitution, to be binding on the following conditions'

First — That the question whether a convention should
be called, should be submitted to the people and decided
by them by a majority of votes at the polls of election;
and second — if a convention should be in this way called,
that their doings should again be submitted to the people
for their confirmation or rejection.

On the eighth of November, the second day after the
legislature convened, the assembly proceeded to choose a
council of appointment; and the following was the result
of the vote: — southern district, Walter Bowne, seventy-
one; middle, John T. Moore, seventy-one; eastern, Roger
Skinner, seventy-one; western, David E. Evans, seventy-
one. The Clintonian candidates were Townsend, Ross,
Frothingham and Barstow, who each received fifty-four
votes.

All the members of the new elected council were politi-
cally hostile to the governor, and all, except Mr. Evans,
were particularly and especially so. The propriety of se-
lecting Mr. Skinner for a councillor, was questioned with
great plausibility. He had been, about a year before, ap-
pointed United States judge of the northern district of
New-York, an oflSce which had become vacant by the
death of Judge Talmadge. In more early, and perhaps it
might not be too much to say, purer days of the republic,
that same senate of which Judge Skinner was a member,
had resolved that the holding of an office under the United

540 POLITICAL HISTORY

States was incompatible with a seat in the New- York le-
gislature. But here, it was not only determined that Mr.
Skinner should continue to hold his seat, to w'hich no one
at that time objected, but that he should be thrust into the
very whirlpool — the vortex — of party operations and man-
agement. This certainly was wrong, and the condemna-
tion of the practice has been distinctly pronounced by an
amendment to the constitution, which was proposed by
the convention of 1822, and sanctioned by the people.

The new council did not meet until the next winter's
session.

On the next day the presidential electors were chosen
without, I believe, any serious disagreement. The Clin-
tonians, however, held up candidates, but the republican
ticket, headed by William Floyd and Henry Rutgers, as
state electors, succeeded by a majority of eighteen in the
assembly and eight in the senate.

Gen. Root brought in a bill declaring that slavery
could not exist in this state, being inconsistent with its
constitution and laws. Upon the principles contended for
by Mr. Root, the bill was, of necessity, declaratory in its
character. He contended that the Declaration of Inde-
pendence was the fundamental law of the land, in all
those states which claimed, or admitted, that ihat instru-
ment was framed by their agents; and that it especially
made a part of the constitutional law of New-York, be-
cause it was actually incorporated into our constitution.

That declaration declared that all men were born free
and equal, and that life, liberty and the pursuit of happi-
ness was the inalienable right of all. It resulted, as a self
evident truth, that if all men were born free and equal no
person could be born a slave.

Gen. Root, however, was not able to get a vote taken
on the merits of his bill. It was postponed.

OF NEW- YORK. 541

I copy the following very imperfect sketch of the last
remarks of Mr. Root, on this subject, from the New-York
Statesman. Every person who has heard him when exci-
ted in debate, will readily perceive that the sketch fur-
nished by the report cannot have done justice to the spea-
ker:—

" Mr, Root hoped for the indulgence of the committee,
for once more occupying the floor in defence of the prin-
ciples of this bill. The gentlemen from Orange, (Mr.
Borland,) has cited the common law of England, and co-
lonial precedent, as authority for justifying and legalizing
slavery in this state. Mr. R. said, that after the revolu-
tion a statute was passed by this state, declaring that after
the first day of May, 1788, the common law of England,
and the laws of the colony, should not continue in force
any farther than such laws were applicable to our republi-
can institutions and customs. But even the common law
of England does not sanction the existence of slavery at
home. It was true, that in the earlier periods of English
history, while the feudal system was yet in vogue, a spe-
cies of slaves, called villains^ were held in bondage by the
iron-handed barons. But this barbarous age had gone by^
and Magna Charta had annulled this system of vassalage.
Slaves could not now breath in England. True, she gra-
ciously permitted slavery to exist in her colonies ; but we
were not compelled to abide by a custom which she had
tolerated. In reply to his friend from New-York, Mr. R.
observed that a very considerable proportion of our statutes
are merely declaratory, setting forth principles which are
found in the constitution. He wished gentlemen to look
at the preamble of the constitution — there was to be found
the interpretation of that charter of our citizens. He
referred also to the Declaration of Independence, as con-
taining the principles of this bill. Our constitution is
based upon that Declaration, which is explicit upon the

542 POLITICAL HISTORY

equal rights of all men. Out of that sacred soil, said Mr.
R., our constitution, and all our laws spring; and we can-
not tear up that soil without defacing it. He inquired, if
people would confine themselves to paper constihdions —
if they would not look abroad beyond these narrow con-
fines of right and wrong — if they would not recur to first
principles — to the laws of nature and of nature's God — to
the foundations of equity and justice. Before these broad
and fundamental principles, the laws of men ought to
vanish like a mist before the beams of the sun. The sen-
tleman from New-York asks time to read the constitution!
Will that gentleman acknowledge that he is not acquaint-
ed with the constitution 1 He was, however, willing to
give time for reflection; but the sooner the bill passed, the
better for the state. Mr. R. concluded with hoping that
the committee would pass the first clause of the bill, and
then go to dinner."

It appeared, from a report of the attorney general, that
he had commenced a suit against the vice-president, in be-
half of the state, to recover the balance due from him as
reported by the comptroller.

On the 10th November Mr. Skinner brought a bill into
the senate, accompanied with a release of all claims of
Mr. Tompkins against the state, which bill declared the
acceptance, on the part of the state, of the release, and
directed the comptroller to cause it to be filed and there-
upon to balance his accounts.

This bill, after some feeble opposition, rather to the
haste with which action on the bill was pressed, than to its
principles, passed both houses and became a law. Thus
this question, which had produced so much discussion in
the legislature, and controversy among the people, was
finally put at rest.

The great and absorbing question which occupied the
attention of the legislature, and the public generally, du-

OF NEW-YORK. 543

ring this session, was the call of a convention to amend
the constitution. The democratic party now held a majo-
rity in both branches of the legislature, and judging from
the returns of members of assembly at the spring elections,
and from more recent demonstrations of public opinion in
various parts of the state, no discreet man could doubt but
that, if a convention should be authorized, a large majo-
rity of the delegates would be republican. They, there-
fore, wisely determined to do what I pressed upon the
Clintonians to do, in 1818 and 1819, which was, to get up
a convention while they had the power of controlling it.
It was one of Mr. Van Buren's maxims, that that which
ought to be done should be done quickly. — A sound max-
im, applicable to most of the concerns of human life.
Much may be lost, and seldom any thing can be gained by
delay.

That part of the governor's speech pertaining to a con-
vention was referred to a committee, of which Mr. Ul-
shoeffer was chairman. The committee, with great promp-
titude, reported a bill for the call of a convention with
unlimited powers, whose doings were to be submitted to
the people, and confirmed or rejected, as they should think
proper.

This bill came up for discussion, in the assembly, on the
15th November. All the members professed to be in fa-
vor of the principle of the bill, and the first clause of it
passed unanimously; but they differed in relation to the
details, and the proper time for considering it. The Clin-
tonians wished to postpone action on the question until
the regular session in the winter; and Mr. J. C. Spencer,
from Ontario, contended that the counties ought to be
represented in a. ratio proportioned to the present number
of Inhabitants, which might be done if action on the sub-
ject should be put off till the next winter, because the re-
turns of the United States census, then being taken, would

544 POLITICAL HISTORY

be before them in February. He showed that some of the
western counties would then be entitled to nearly double
their present representation. Mr. Ford argued that the
question whether there should or should not be a conven-
tion with unlimited powers, ought first to be submitted to
the people.

It is due to candor and truth to state, that the Clinto-
nians, as a party, were, notwithstanding their vote on the
first clause of the bill, opposed to any convention with
unlimited powers. They believed that the action of the
convention would be exclusively controlled by the repub-
lican party, and they feared that would be done, which
eventually was done, namely, that the judiciary system
would be abolished and a new one established, by which
the judges and chancellor would be, if I may be allowed
to coin a word, constitutionized out of office. Notwith-
standing the legal learning and talents, and integrity of
the judges of the supreme court, much of popular preju-
dice had accumulated against them, principally, if not
solely, in consequence of their interference with political
concerns^ and, as the judges belonged to different parties,
citizens, who were members of each party, had felt dissat-
isfied with such occasional interference. There were, too,
a great number of ambitious young lawyers in the state
who acted w^ith the democratic party, who, it may fairly be
presumed, had their eyes upon some of the great offices
then secured to the incumbents by the constitution, and
who did not fail to encourage those jealousies and fan the
embers of animosity against the judges and chancellor.
Of all this the Clintonians in the assembly were fully
aware, and they therefore made use of every effort to pre-
vent an immediate call of a convention. On the other
hand, it is, in my judgment, very evident that the leading
republicans would not have consented to the proposed
convention had not Mr. Clinton been re-elected, and had

OF NEW-YORK. 645

they not entertained a well founded belief that they could
control the essential action of a convention when formed.
I make this assertion from my knowledge of the men,
and from the fact that until the present session they
apparently, by a tacit understanding among themselves,
disagreed as to the details of a bill for the organization
of a convention. In justice to Gen. Root, however, I
ought to remark that his action on that question for three
successive sessions was perfectly uniform and consistent;
but the chairman of the committee Mr. Ulshoeffer, had the
session next preceding the present, contended that the
question of convention or no convention ought first to be
submitted to the people, and had himself offered the very
amendment to the bill then under consideration, now pro-
posed and advocated by Mr. Ford, and which Mr. Ul-
shoeffer now vehemently opposed.

All attempts to postpone, or alter the material features
of the bill, by the minority, both in the senate and assem-
bly, finally failed, and it passed both houses on the eigh-
teenth of November.

In the council of revision, the bill was considered on
the 20th of November. Mr. Justice Van Ness and Mr.
Justice Piatt, were both at that time absent, holding cir-
cuit courts. There is, in my mind, little doubt that it had
been pre-determined by a majority of the council to veto
the bill; and it was supposed that all the members of that
body, except Judge Yates, would concur in such vote.
None of the members felt a deeper interest than Judges
Van Ness and Piatt in preventing a convention, but they
probably were desirous of avoiding any direct personal
action on the question, and it is not at all improbable that
the arrangement, which at this moment called them in the
discharge of their official duties from the seat of govern-
ment, may have been made at their instance.

35

546 POLITICAL HISTORl

Inasmuch as the governor's political existence depended
on the popular will, and it was pretty well known that an
immense majority of the people w"'ere for a convention,
either with or without limited powers, and more especially
as the orovernor was committed in favor of a convention
with unlimited powers, both he and his friends were desi-
rous that he should not be compelled to vote on the bill,
and at any rate that he should not vote against it.

The members of the council who were present at
the time the convention bill was considered, were Gov.
Clinton, Chancellor Kent, Chief Justice Spencer, Judge
Yates and Judge Woodworth.

The Chancellor was called on for his opinion, and de-
clared it against the bill, and the Chief Justice concurred
with him. Judge Yates voted in favor of it; but when
Judge Woodworth was called on, who all supposed would
vote against the bill, to the utter astonishment of Lhe
chancellor and chief justice, as well as the extreme em-
barrassment of the governor, he voted in favor of it.
This produced a tie in the council and compelled the
governor to give a casting vote. He did so, and the bill
was rejected.

The propriety of passing the convention bill did, be-
yond all doubt, present a question upon which intelligent,
honest and patriotic men might differ; and one can hardly
perceive why Judge Woodworth should have been con-
demned as acting from improper motives when he voted
in favor of it. His conduct nevertheless was animadverted
upon with great severity, and the purity of his motives
impeached.

The reasons of this attack upon the Judge were, that he
had but a short time before claimed to be a prominent
member of the Clintonian party; that he had solicited his
appointment as judge, upon the ground that he was the
political friend of the governor; that his claim had been

OF JSEW-YORK. 547

allowed by the governor and council of appointment, in
preference to other candiclatesj admitted to possess high
standing as lawyers, and a high grade of talent; that the
passage of a convention bill at that time had become a
party question, and that Judge Wood worth ought not
at such a juncture to have abandoned his political friends,
through whose power and influence he had received a
high and important ofllice from which he could not be
removed.

Another imputation was made against Judge Wood-
worth, which if unjust was extremely cruel.

Judge Woodworth had been sued in the supreme court as
endorser of a promissory note for several thousand dollars,
for James Kane, for whose benefit the note was endorsed,
and who had become insolvent. He set up in his defence
that the body of the note had been materially altered after
he endorsed it. The supreme court gave judgment against
the Judge; and he had brought from that judgment, error
to the court for correction of errors; which matter was
then pending before the court of errors. It was alleged
in private circles and publicly talked of, that Judge Wood-
worth was induced to give the vote above referred to in
the council of revision, in the hope, or in accordance
with a secret understanding with the party in the majority
in the senate, that that majority would decide that the
judgment rendered against him by the supreme court
should be reversed.

Before I go further I may perhaps as well state that the
cause came on for argument in the court of errors, in March,
1821. The report of the case will be found in 19 John. 391;
Woodworth vs. Bank of America. The cause was argued
by Talcott and Van Buren for the plaintiff in error, and
Hoffman and Henry for the defendants. The opinion of the
majority of the court w^as delivered by senator Skinner
in favor of reversing the judgraent,and with him seven-

548 POLITICAL HISTORY

teen senators concurred. The chancellor delivered an
opinion in favor of affirming the judgment, and with him,
nine senators concurred. Every senator who was for
affirming the judgment of the supreme court were Clinto-
nians, and every one who voted for reversing, were political
opponents to the governor.* This circumstance gave color
to the allegation that the judge, in giving his vote as a
member of the council of revision, was governed by im-
proper motives. I was not present during the whole of
the argument, and therefore, according to established
usage, did not vote on the question. It is however, per-
haps due, in frankness and candor, to Judge Woodworth
and the party in the majority, to state that at that time I
expressed an opinion, and have ever since retained it, that
Judge Woodworth's defence was a good and valid one,
and that the judgment of the supreme court was wrong.
The note, when endorsed by Woodworth, was not made
payable at any particular place. After he endorsed it
Mr. Kane added on the margin of the note the words
"payable at the Bank of America." Before those words
were added, the endorser could not be made liable unless
a demand had been made of the maker personally, or at
his usual place of residence. By adding those words, (if,
as the supreme court assumed, they made a part of the
note,) the liability of the endorser was increased, or rather
the condition on which the endorser might become liable
was altered- for he then became chargable with the debt
by a demand of payment of the note at the Bank of Ame-
rica, and notice to the endorser of non-payment. This, I
then thought, and so informed my friends, and I now
think, was such an alteration of the note and of the condi-
tions upon which the endorser became liable, as, (being
done without his consent,) exonerated him. But I do not
mean to discuss the merits of the question. I may be
>ivrong and when such distinguished jurists as Chancellor

* There was one exception — John Lounsburv.

or NEW-YORK. 549

Kent, Chief Justice Spencer, and Juuges Van Ness and
Piatt entertain a contrary opinion, I certainly have good
reasons to doubt the soundness of my own opinion.

Is it necessary to impute improper motives to Judge
Woodworth for his vote on the convention bill 1

It surely does not follow that because he believed De
Witt Clinton a more suitable man for governor than Dan-
iel D. Tompkins, he was bound to be of opinion that a
bill for calling a convention, which had passed the two
houses of the legislature, would be pernicious if it became
a law. Were the two questions, on their merits, at all
connected 1 Gov. Clinton himself had recommended the
very measure which the bill before the council provided
for carrying into effect. True, he had advised that the
question whether a convention should or should not be
called, ought first to be submitted to the people. But the
question had been several years before the New-York
public; scarcely a word had been uttered from any quar-
ter against the measure; the governor, as I have before
stated, had recommended it; and, within a few days, the
members of the assembly, consisting of federalists, Clinto-
nians and Bucktails fresh from the people, had unani-
mously recorded their votes in favor of the principle of
the bill. Why, then, should Judge Woodworth be
charged with being governed by corrupt motives in yield-
ing his assent to it 1

The case of Judge Woodworth was, in my judgment,
very different from that of Mr. Childs, Gen. Mooers, or
Mr. Evans. They were elected by the Clintonians, and
immediately combined with those who opposed their elec-
tion to exclude the party, to whom they owed their elec-
tion, from all governmental patronage. Mr. Woodworth
differed with his political friends, not about the principle,
but the details of a proposed law.

550

POLITICAL HISTORY

The objections of the council of revision were drawn
by Chancellor Kent, with his usual ability. Even the
council admitted that the constitution ought to be revised,
and therefore, of course, did not contend against the prin-
ciple of the bill; but they alleged, first — that the legisla-
ture had no constitutional authority to create a convention
with unlimited power, even to propose amendments to the
constitution. Second — that, if they had such power, the
bill ought to have required the convention to submit their
amendments separately to the people, and not in gross;
and the council argued with great force, that if the people
were competent to decide on the amendments when taken
all together, they were most assuredly competent to de-
cide on each separate amendment. In other words, if
they were capable of deciding on the whole of an instru-
ment, they were capable of deciding on all the parts of
which that instrument was composed.

On Monday evening, the 20th November, the bill was
returned to the assembly by the council of revision, with
their objections. Much agitation and excitement prevailed
in the house upon the occasion, Mr. Ulshoeffer, however,
after a very decent, and considering the feeling which
then prevailed, moderate address, moved that the bill, to-
gether with the reasons assigned by the council of revision
against its becoming a law, be laid on the table; and the
house unanimously sustained the motion.

This movement of the council produced consequences
directly different from what were intended. The object
was to preserve the supreme court, and it accelerated its
destruction. The chancellor and judges were charged
with exercising an almost arbitrary power, with which, by
the old constitution, they were invested, to defeat the de-
clared will of the people. It did not require any special
gift of prophecy to predict what would be the result of a
contest, in a free country, between fiour men on the one

OF NEW- YORK. 551

side and the people on the other. Immediately after the.
adjournment of the assembly a meeting was held at Skin-
ner's Mansion House, of the members of the legislature
opposed to the details of the convention bill, although I
am not aware that any of the Clintonian senators attended
on that occasion, at which a committee, consisting of John
C. Spencer, Samuel M. Hopkins, Herman Gansevoort,
Howland Fish and Myron Holley, were appointed, and
■who addressed their constituents on the subject of the bill
"which had been vetoed by the council of revision. The
address was drawn, as I presume, by Mr. John C. Spen-
cer; it evinced great ability, and among other things,
pointed out clearly and forcibly the inequality of repre-
sentation in the convention proposed by the bill; but the
current in favor of a convention was too strong to be
checked in its progress. The public mind had, by this
time, received an impression that Mr. Spencer, and those
acting with him, were, at heart, opposed to any conven-
tion which should be vested with powers adequate to what
it was deemed the emergency required, and the democrat-
ic party were not then in a humor to listen to any reason-
ing coming from a source so suspicious.

Congress assembled in December, and Mr. Clay, who
had for many sessions been speaker of the house of repre-
sentatives, resigned his office, and his seat as a member of
congress.

Mr. John W. Taylor, of Saratoga, an old and respecta-
ble member of that body, was proposed by the members
from the northern and middle states as a suitable person
for his successor. The southern members were divided.
Some were for Mr. Nelson of Virginia, and some for Mr.
Lowndes of South-Carolina. Mr. Taylor was eventually
elected by a small majority. The contest seemed to be
rather a sectional one, and particularly between the slave
holding and non slave holding states, except as respected

552 POLITICAL HISTORY

the opponents of Mr. Clinton in the state of New- York.
The members belonging to that party, from this state,
generally voted against him. .Nothing exhibits more dis-
tinctly the proscriptive spirit of party than this opposition
of the New-York members to Mr. Taylor. He had been
a member of our legislature in 1812, and had stood firm
against the corrupt efforts of the applicants for a charter
to the Bank of America. He had, on all occasions, as a
member of the assembly, faithfully sustained the republi-
can interest in the state. In 1813 he entered congress, at
■which time he withdrew himself from the local contests
which prevailed here, and in the national legislature uni-
formly supported the democratic party, and particularly
the measures of the administration during the war.

The speaker of the house of representatives, for the
time being, as every one knows, holds a powerful influ-
ence in the action of that controlling branch of our na-
tional legislature, and gives a very great impetus to the
political power of the state of which he is an inhabitant.
But Mr. Taylor had declined to make war upon Gov. Clin-
ton, and his colleagues who had opposed Clinton's re-elec-
tion, utterly regardless of the consideration I have just
stated, zealously resisted his election, solely and exclu-
sively on the ground that he had voted for Mr. Clinton as
governor.

It will be recollected that the senate, on the 15th No-
vember, passed a resolution calling on the governor for
such information as he possessed relative to the interfe
rence of the general government, or its oflScers, as an
organized and disciplined corps, in our elections. To this
the governor, on the morning of the 10th inst., sent the
following reply: —

" TO THE SENATE."

" Gentlemen — Fully appreciating the patriotic solici-
tude of the senate to prevent all unwarrantable intrusions

/ OF NEW-YORK. 553

in the political affairs of the state, I have rec-eived their
application for information on this subject with great
pleasure, and I shall, in due time, make them a communi-
cation, which, I trust, will be satisfactory in its nature andi
salutary in its tendency.

DE WITT CLINTON."

In the speech of the governor he did not affirm, although
he clearly intimated, that the officers of the national go-
vernment had interfered in the late election, and he then
states hypotheticaily, that, " i/", as an organized corps^^
they shall so interfere, he trusted that there w^ould be
found a becoming disposition in the people to resist such
alarming attempts. He undoubtedly considered, and it
strikes me he had a right so to consider, the suggestion as
a mere opinion founded upon what he supposed the Uni-
ted States had evinced to be their general policy — an
opinion which any one had a right to controvert and show
to be erroneous. He did not mean it as an affirmation,
the proof of which he could in fairness be called on to
produce by documentary evidence. The senate, however,
chose to claim that he had taken the latter ground. They
probably did not imagine he would have replied at all to
the resolution, and in that case they meant to assert that
he had put forth a false accusation against the national
government. The senate, in acting upon the supposition
that Mr. Clinton would evade a contest, entirely mistook
their man. No point is more prominent in Mr. Clinton's
character, than a constant readiness for combat with a po-
litical opponent. The bitter irony contained in the answer,
and the menacing attitude assumed by the governor in
respect to the majority of the senate, extremely annoyed
them. In order to carry on the war on their part, they,
on the evening of the 20th November, introduced the fol-
lowing preamble and resolution: —

554 POLITICAL HISTORY

" Tn Sexate — Nov. 20, 1820. — Whereas his excellency
the governor, in his reply to the call of the senate for in-
formation, relative to the general government, or its offi-
cers, as an organized corps, interfering in our elections,
has not furnished the senate with any evidence in support
of such charges. And whereas it is highly improper that
the chief magistrate of the state should criminate the ad-
ministration of the general government, without ample
testimony in his possession, by reason whereof the good
people of this state may have their confidence in the gene-
ral government greatly impaired. Therefore,

" Resolved^ That the senate repose the strictest confi-
dence in the patriotism and integrity of the general go-
vernment, and will not change such opinion, or yield to
any insinuations against such administration, but upon full
and satisfactory testimony."

This resolution was proposed by Mr. P. R. Livingston.
It was not anticipated by the governor or his friends.
The only indication of an extraordinary movement was,
that when the evening session of the senate commenced,
the lobby and galleries were crowded with an unusual
number of spectators, who were observed to be composed
almost exclusively of citizens who had distinguished them-
selves by their opposition to Gov. Clinton. As the mo-
tion was entirely unexpected, no member of the opposition
was prepared to resist it by any thing like an argument.
Mr. Livingston made a speech in favor of the resolution.
He declaimed, with his usual zeal, against this act of the
governor of the state of New-York, and represented it
almost as treason against his liege lord, the president of
the United States; and he adjured all true republicans to
unite with him in denouncing a declaration by the execu-
tive of this state so utterly unfounded, uncalled for, and
indefensible.

OF NEW-VORK. 555

It was urged in vain that the manner in which the
charge was intimated, did not warrant the senate in calling
on the governor for documentary proofs; that, if the
speech would fairly bear the construction for which the
mover of the resolution contended, only five days had
elapsed since the original resolution had been delivered to
the governor, and one of those days was Sunday; that, if
nothing but documentary evidence would -satisfy the sen-
ate, it was evident that if, as was alleged, the action of
the general government had extended all over the state,
the evidence of improper conduct must be collected, from
individuals residing in different and various counties, and,
of course, that not only weeks, but months must elapse
before that evidence could be obtained, collected and di-
gested, in a form suitable to be presented to the senate.
It was further stated, that the governor, by his last com-
munication, had committed himself to furnish the evidence,
and that the adoption of the proposed preamble and reso-
lution would, on the part of the senate, be prejudging the
case before evidence was furnished them. The preamble
and resolution was adopted by the usual party vote; and
the clerk was directed to deliver a copy of it to the governor.

The next morning he sent to the senate the following
brief but indignant reply: —

"TO THE SENATE."

" Gentlemen — I have this moment received a resolution
of your honorable body, which, as well as the one to
which it refers, I shall fully notice at the next meeting of
the legislature: and shall therefore, at this late hour, pass
it over with the expression of my sincere regret that any
branch of the legislature should, in so unprecedented a
manner, lose sight of the respect due to itself, and the
courtesy due to a co-ordinate department of the govern-
ment. DE WITT CLINTON."

556 POLITICAL HISTORY

On the motion of Mr. Skinner, this message was direct-
ed to be returned to the governor; seventeen senators
voting in favor of it. The legislature on the same day,
and indeeed in a few moments afterwards, adjourned until
the next January. On account of the collisions between
the two houses and the council of revision, with respect
to the convention bill, and especially on account of the
proceedings I have last related; the parties separated in
ill humor, and with bad feelings towards each other. It
will be recollected that Mr. Van Bur en had ceased to be
a member of the senate, notwithstanding he was the
acknowledged leader of the democratic party; his bland
and conciliatory manner, his caution and his aversion to
personal controversies would have greatly assuaged if not
prevented the violent personal animosities which were ex-
cited during this short session.

While I entirely disapprove of the course taken by the
senate in relation to that part of the governor's speech
which protested against the interference of the agents of
the national government in our state elections, I am com-
pelled to say, that I think the intimation was, to say the
least, impolitic on his part.

He must have known, that there was not at that time
the least inclination among the people of this, or any
other state in the union to oppose the administration of
Mr. Monroe. He had been very tolerant towards the
federalists, and that party felt no disposition to wage a
hopeless warfare against him. Our foreign relations were
prosperous, and our commerce was in a flourishing condi-
tion. There was no just cause of complaint against the
measures of the general government, and although, many
ardent democratic politicians were not well pleased with
the president; yet, they did not choose publicly to de-
nounce him. He was not a man of vigorous intellect, but
he was discreet and prudent. It was owing to his dis-

OF NEW-YORK. 557

cietion, and to the unusual political calm which prevailed
during the eight years in which he presided, that no pre-
sident, with the exception of Gen. Washington, ever sailed
so smoothly through two presidential terms as he did.
He had no warm friends, or open enemies. He was
in 1820, re-elected without opposition. What could Mr.
Clinton hope to gain by attacking such an administra-
tion ?

On the 9th of January, 1821, the legislature again met,
and on the seventeenth of the same month the governor
sent to the assembly a message, accompanied with a great
number of affidavits, certificates and letters, showing the
interference of national officers, and in some instances
very strong presumptive proof that the patronage of the
general government had been used for the purpose of en-
couraging opposition to his re-election. The documents
were very voluminous and were sent to the assembly in
a bagj for the purpose of more conveniently transporting
the papers. Hence the message received the name of
The Green Bag Message.

Among a variety of other matters, it appeared that Col-
John P. Decatur, naval store keeper at Brooklyn, and
some other United States officers, had made great efforts at
the late election to defeat the Clintonian ticket in the
county of Kings, and that other United States officers
had been very active in various parts of the state.

Among the documents contained in the green bag, was
a letter from Mr. Van Buren to Henry Meigs, then a
member of congress from the city of New-York, recom-
mending by name the removal of several Clintonian depu-
ty post masters, and the appointment of men of opposite
political sentiments in their places. The letter was evi-
dently written in great haste. He says, " unless we can
alarm them" (the Clintonians,) " by two or three prompt
removals, there is no limiting the injurious consequences

558 POLITICAL HISTORY

that may result from it." He adds, " If any thing is
done, let it be done quickly." He does not charge the
incumbents with any misconduct. Two of the four post
masters whose removal he advised, were instantly dis-
placed. This letter was dated the 4th of April, 1820. It
was at the time of its publication, and has since been a
subject of considerable animadversion, much more in my
judgment that it deserved, Mr. Van Buren did no more
than other party men, from the organization of the govern-
ment, had done before him. He recommended the removal
of his enemies and the appointment of his friends. The
error was in the ^rac^ice which had been tolerated by all
descriptions of of men for many years.

Mr. Clinton and Judge Spencer themselves had frequent-
ly exerted their influence with those who administered the
national government, in the same manner as Mr. Van Bu-
ren did his on the present occasion. The green bag mes-
sage and documents were referred to a joint committee of
the two houses.

Immediately after the legislature had organized, the
committee of the assembly, to whom the objections of the
council of revision to the convention bill had been referred,
made a long and laborious report. The report criticised
with great severity the objections of the council, animad-
verted upon the conduct of some its members, and hardly
abstained from impugning their motives. The rejected
bill, together with the objections of the council of revi-
sion, and the report of the select committee, were referred
to a committee of the whole house.

Soon after the commencement of the session, and I be
lieve, on the second or third day, Mr. John C. Spencer
asked leave to bring in a bill providing for a convention
to amend the constitution. The principal features in this
bill, which differed from that which had been rejected by
the council were,

OF NEW-YORK. 659

First. It provided that the people at the next annual
election should vote on the question for or against a con-
vention.

Second. That if a majority of the electors should vote
for a convention, the governor should issue a proclama-
tion announcing the fact, and thereupon in the month of
June following, delegates should be chosen from the several
counties who should compose the convention.

Third. That the number of delegates to be chosen by
each county should be in proportion to the population,
to be ascertained by the census then lately taken.

Fourth. That the amendments recommended by the con-
vention should be separate and distinct, and severally sub-
mitted to the people, and be respectively confirmed or
rejected, as a majority of the people should decide by
their votes.

This project, which seems to be a reasonable one, and
would probably have been adopted had it been proposed be-
fore the minds of men became highly excited and exasper-
ated, was not listened to by the majority. Indeed, leave to
bring in a bill containing this scheme, was refused to Mr.
S. upon the plea that the bill then before the house ought
first to be disposed of.

A long and exciting debate followed on the orignal bill,
and the objections of the council of revision, without
coming to any decision^ but after many days, the ques-
tion was finally taken upon the bill; and it was lost, more
than one-third of the members voting against it. The
committee on the subject were then directed to bring in a
new bill, which they accordingly did; but it was in sub-
stance the same as the bill which had been rejected. Af-
ter this second bill had been discussed for some time, Mr.
Burt offered an amendment to it which obviated the prin-
cipal objection of the council. By this amendment, the
question of convention or no convention was to be sub-

560- POLITICAL HISTORY

mitted to the people at the next annual election. This
movement presented a new, though perhaps not a very
unusual course of party operations.

The democratic party in the legislature were determined
on passing a convention bill, but they well knew that no
such bill could be passed by a majority of two-thirds of
both houses, unless it should be so drawn as not to be
obnoxious to the views expressed by the council of revi-
sion; they, however, did not wish to appear to concede
that the ground taken by the council was correct. On the
other hand, although the Clintonians professed a desire
for a convention, if the consent of the people could first
be obtained; their leaders at that time really wished to
prevent a convention upon any terms. They therefore
were anxious that the majority should hold the attitude
they had taken against the principles put forth by the
council of revision. Mr. Burt was known to be in full
confidence with the democratic leaders in the assembly,
and there is not, in my mind, a shadow of doubt but that
he brought forward this amendment after consultation
with them and in accordance with their wishes; and yet
Mr. Ulshoeffer, Mr. Sharp, Mr. Romain, and I believe
every leading democrat in the house, with the exception
of General Root, voted against Mr. Burt's amendment,
and every Clintonian, with the exception of Mr. Bough-
ton of Ontario, voted for it. There were for the amend-
ment, eighty-one — against it, twenty-five. In this form
the bill passed both houses.

A regard to truth,compels me to state one other fact. After
Mr. Burt's amendment had been adopted, and while the bill
was in the house of assembly, a prominent Clintonian
member of the assembly stated in the presence of a Clin-
tonian senator, that he had reason to believe the council
of revision would reject the bill in the form it then was,
if they could be supported in the measure by their friends

OF NEW-YORK. 561

in the legislature. In justice to that senator, I must be
allowed to add, that he told the member that whatever
others might do, he would not consent to resist the bill as
amended ; that he had for many years been in favor of a
revision of the constitution j that the proposed bill was, in
his judgment, as unobjectionable as any bill which could
be devised that would pass both houses, and if it should
be rejected by the council, he should still vote for it,
and make what efforts he could, to obtain two-thirds of
the legislature in its favor. If the project I have men-
tioned, was one seriously entertained by the majority
of the council, of which I have no other evidence than
what I have stated, it was abandoned ; for it finally passed
that body without opposition.

During the present session it became necessary to elect
a senator of the United States, in place of Mr. Sanford,
whose term* expired on the fourth of March. Mr. San-
ford was a candidate for re-election ; but at a caucus of
republican members of the legislature, which was attended
by eighty-two members, Mr. Van Buren received fifty-
eight votes, and Mr. Sanford but twenty-four. Mr. Van
Buren was,«of course, declared regularly nominated. This
enterprising and ambitious man, having for several years
constituted the active and moving spirit of his party in
New-York, began now to turn his attention to the general
government. Washington presented to his restless and
active mind, a far more extendeil theatre of action than
Albany. The way was open, and the time was propitious
for him to take the field there, with a fair prospect of
being the great man of the Empire State.

As a national politician there was no reason to appre-
hend that Mr. Clinton would be sustained by a majority
of the people of New-York ; and the pecuniary embarrass-
ments of Gov. Tompkins, his impaired health, his failure
in the recent election in this state, and his irregular habits,

36

562 POLITICAL HISTORY

rendered it morally certain that he would retire from
public life after the term for which he had been elected
vice-president should expire. Who, then, could stand in
the way of Mr. Van Buren from his own state 1 It is not
improbable that he, at that early period, anticipated the
splendid success which subsequently attended his career
as a national politician.

The Clinlonians, in the legislature, voted for Mr. San-
ford. In this, I then thought, and now think, they were
wrong. It was not pretended that Mr. Sanford's political
principles varied essentially from Mr. Van Buren's ; nor
was it claimed for him, that he was personally, a man of
more integrity, while all admitted that Mr, Van Buren
possessed a higher grade of talent. What, then, was to
be gained by voting for Mr. Sanford 1 I refused to do so;
but as my political friends all made a point of supporting
Mr. S., under an apprehension that my vote for Mr. Van
Buren would be regarded as an abandonment of them,
which I had no intention of doing, I did not vote at all on
the question.

In the senate, Mr. Van Buren received seventeen votes,
and Mr. Sanford eight ; and in the assembkj', the vote
stood sixty-nine for Mr. Van Buren, and fifty-two for Mr.
Sanford.

Mr. Benjamin Knower, of Albany, was this winter ap-
pointed by the legislature, treasurer, in lieu of Mr. Ger-
rit L. Dox.

Mr. Dox was considered a little unstable and wavering
in his politics, while Mr. Knower was a decided and ex-
tremely active and influential politician, which probably
was the principal reason of the change. There were,
however, other and better reasons. Mr. Knower had been
brought up an apprentice to the hatting business, in Mas-
sachusetts, and while he v/as yet a young man had estab-
lished himself in Albany as a hatter. Bv his industry

OF NEW-YORK. 563

and personal labor, he had acquired considerable wealth,
and by his integrity and fair dealing, had gained the confi-
dence of all who knew him. He was one of nature's
great men, and an honorable specimen of what a laboring
American mechanic, favored with vigorous intellectual
powers, may become. Though zealous in his political
principles, he was frank, candid, and liberal ; and, though
an ardent partisan, he was kind and benevolent.

The successful prosecution of the construction, and early
completion of the canals, required the appointment of an
other acting commissioner ; and provisions for that pur-
pose were accordingly made by the legislature.

The office of canal commissioner had now become a
great state office. Much depended on the ability and
fidelity with which these officers discharged their duty;
and the immense amount of monies which passed through
their hands, and was expended under their direction,
clothed them with a patronage which put it in their power
to exercise a great political influence, especially in those
parts of the state where the canals were located.

When it was determined that an additional commis-
sioner should be created, a number of respectable and
powerful candidates for the appointment, from the valley
of the Mohawk and other parts of the state, were an-
nounced ; and among the most pressing, were Gerrit L.
Dox, the late treasurer, and Moses Austin, the senator
from Greene county. But several of the central and inte-
rior counties in the state, and such were Schoharie, Otsego,
and Delaware, claimed a right to be represented in the
canal board — a board which had now become one of pri-
mary importance — and they, with great unanimity, irre-
spective of party considerations, recommended William
C. BoucK, a senator from the county of Schoharie. He
was, however, afterwards regularly nominated at a demo-
cratic legislative caucus, and subsequently appointed by

564 POLITICAL HISTORY

nearly the unanimous nomination of both houses of the
legislature. In the senate, the vote for him was quite
unanimous, with the exception of Mr. Rosecrantz, a respect-
able and worthy senator, of German descent, from Herki-
mer county, who, with true Dutch obstinacy, declared he
would ^^ never vote for a hucktail.^''

Mr. Bouck was a self-made man ; but his native saga-
city and shrewdness, his great caution and prudence, and
his almost intuitive knowledge of men, had already given
him an influence among his political friends in the quarter
of the state in which he resided, for which those who were
not intimately acquainted with him, or were not good
judges of the human character, knew not how to account.
Van Buren, however, early knew, and properly appreci-
ated him.

The selection of Mr. Bouck was exceedingly judicious.
Far from disappointing, he exceeded the anticipations of
his friends. The history of our canals will show that he
rendered services to the stale of a charcter highly impor-
tant.

The joint committee on the Green Bag Message, on the
15th of March, made their report. They produced several
affidavits impeaching the depositions which accompanied
the governor's communication ; and, in their report, they
speak with great asperity of the course taken by the go-
vernor, and conclude by alleging that the existence of any
extraneous influence has never been observed in any of
our elections. It is difficult to conceive how honorable
men could bring themselves to make such a declaration in
the face of an intelligent community, nine-tenths of whom
must have Leen satisfied that it was incorrect.

The governor, in hisGreen Bag Message, had reminded
the legislature of the resolution passed by the two houses
in 1790, that it was improper, for a person holding an
office under the government of the United States, to be a

OF NEW-YORK. 565

member of the state legislature. This resolution the
joint committee repudiate in no measured terms ; and yet,
a few months afterwards, the delegates of the convention,
and the people of the state, incorporated the substance of
that resolution into our constitution, — so highly did they
approve of the principle involved in it.

The legislature adjourned in the latter part of the
month of March.

For the purpose of giving, in a connected form, the
proceedings of the legislature, I have omitted to notice the
action of the new council of appointment, which, it will
be recollected, consisted of Walter Bowne from the south-
ern district, John T. Moore from the middle, Roger Skin
ner from the eastern, and David E. Evans from the west-
ern. They were all decidedly hostile to the governor,
and Mr. Skinner was said to be, not only politically, but
personally unfriendly to him. From the standing of
Judge Skinner, and from his activity in all party opera-
tions, he was supposed to be the efficient man in the
council, and from that circumstance it acquired the name
of Skinner's Council. Judge Skinner, from his conduct
in this body, and perhaps from other parts of his political
conduct, was supposed to be naturally vindictive and ma-
lignant in his feelings. It may be so, but I have before
remarked that from the observations I made in the course
of my acquaintance with him, my impressions in relation
to his character, and the native propensities of his mind,
were not in accordance with such a supposition. He was
not, it is true, a great man ; but I think he possessed kind-
ly and social feelings. He had been educated in a school
of politics which taught him to believe that every legal
measure ought to be taken to diminish the power of an
opponent, and that to the " victors belonged the spoils."
This maxim, which has been so much the subject of ani-
madversion, and has been for many years denounced by

566 POLITICAL HISTORY

all parties in the state when in the minority, has been
practiced by each and every party when in the majority.
I do not affirm that the practice has been right, but I state
as a historical fact, that such has been the practice. It is
true, Mr. Skinner's Council carried out this system with
greater rigor than even here we had been accustomed to.
But in fact, the war was about men, and not about mea-
sures, and perhaps on that very account the feelings of the
party in power were more highly excited. Mr. Skinner
was attacked with great severity by the Clintonian news-
paper writers ; and I have no doubt his feelings were
much soured ; but from a long and intimate acquaintance
with him, he has left no other impression on my mind than
that of a kind hearted, friendly and companionable man.
He has many years ago, gone down to the grave, and has
not to my knowledge, left a single relative in the state of
New-York, and I feel for that reason a higher obligation
upon me to do justice to his character and memory.

The council met on the ]2th of January, and on the first
day of their meeting they ordered the issuing of eleven writs
of supersedeas to as many sheriffs of counties. They re-
moved Archibald Mclntyre from the office of comptrol-
ler. The comptroller, since Mr. Mclntyre had been the
incumbent of the office, had been considered rather as a
working man than as a politician. Neither the council of
1807, 1810, 1813, nor IBM, although Mr. Mclntyre was
decidedly hostile to them, had manifested the least dispo-
sition to remove him. They were aware that it required
time and experience to become well acquainted with the
financial concerns of this great state, and with the best
and most proper mode of managing them ; and they treat-
ed Mr. Mclntyre as before stated, rather as a laborer em-
ployed by the state than as a political office holder. Be-
Bides, all men admitted that he was an accurate and able
accountant, and an honest man. His removal produced

OF NEW-YORK. 567

great excitement and its effect upon community would have
been greater had not the council made a judicious selec-
tion of a successor. That successor was John Savage,
the son of the venerated senator Edward Savage, and late
chief justice of this state. Mr. Savage was a modest, re-
tiring man, but all who were acquainted with him knew him
to be a person of sterling good sense, strict and rigid in-
tegrity, amiable in his disposition and unblemished in his
morals and character.

The council also, on the same day, removed Thomas J.
Oakley from the office of attorney-general. This was
anticipated. Samuel A. Talcott, then a young lawyer,
who' resided in Utica, was appointed in his place. Mr.
Talcott had not then acquired much eminence at the bar,
but he soon developed talents in his profession of the
highest order This appointment was considered as pecu-
liarly Mr. Van Buren's; and the amiable traits in Mr.
T's character and his splendid legal talents fully justified
Mr. Van Buren in taking a warm interest in his favor.
Mr. Talcott had been a federalist, but with many others
of that party had opposed the election of Mr. Clinton j
and Mr. Van Buren, no doubt felt, that good policy re-
quired that some distinguished mark of attention and
respect should be bestowed on some of the individuals
who had been ranked among the federalists. Mr. Tal-
cott too, was a young man, and it was said to be a part
of Mr. Van Buren's policy to appear as the patron of
young men whose abilities and situation in life afforded a
promise that they would become influential in society. I
recollect that Judge Piatt, about that time, in speaking to
mie about this and some other similar appointment, said,
with a very significant look, " This is the age of young
men." Generally speaking, I do not think political lead-
ers are sufficiently aware of the importance of enlisting
young men in their cause. The young have ardor, enter-

568 POLITICAL HISTORY

prise and vigor, and the prospect of a long life before
them. They too, are less suspicious and less selfish than
their seniors.

The council did not confine their operation, even on the
first day of their meeting, to the removal of civil oflBcers,
but superseded several gentlemen holding military com-
missions. Heretofore, this class of office holders, in con-
sequence of the unproductiveness of their offices, had,
during all the political revolutions, remained undisturbed.
General Anthony Lamb, the commissary-general, was re-
moved to make place for Alexander M. Muir, and Gillead
Sperry, a colonel of a regiment of calvary in Clinton
county, was also removed. No allegation of misconduct
appears to have been matle against either Gen. Lamb or
Col. Sperry.| But the removal which produced the great-
est excitement, was that of Solomon Van Rensselaer from
the office of adjutant-general. The gallantry of General
Van Rensselaer as a soldier, is well known and univer-
sally admitted. The military services he had before that
time rendered to the nation, constitute a part of its
history. During the late war, though a federalist, he had
volunteered his services on the Niagara frontier, and in
a daring, though ill-advised attack, led by him, upon the
British at Queenstown, he had been dangerously wounded.
Notwithstanding all these circumstances, and notwithstand-
ing he had been retained in office by Governor Tompkins,
although an open political opponent during the whole
period he administered the government, the present coun-
cil, without any charge of official misconduct, removed
him. William L. Marcy, the late governor, was appointed
in his place. Stephen Allen was appointed mayor of
New-York, in lieu of Cadwallader D. Golden, and Peter
A. was removed from the office of recorder, to which
Richard Riker was appointed.*

• The governor refused to sign the minutes of the proceedings of the council,

{ See Note G.

OF NEW-YORK. 569

After making these changes in the great officers of the
state, the council proceeded into every county and re-
moved all, or nearly all the sheriffs, clerks, surrogates,
judges of the courts of common pleas, and justices of the
peace, who were known or suspected to be politically
opposed to them.

Although this council may seem to us extremely rigor-
ous, it must be confessed they were rather carrying out
the principle imbibed, and the practices tolerated under
the old constitution, than striking out a new path for
themselves. Mr. Skinner and his colleagues were play-
ing the same game in respect to Gov. Clinton, which he
had done when himself a member of the council, with
respect to Gov. Lewis, and when on the motion of Mr.
Clinton, Maturin Livingston, the brother-in-law of Lewis,
was removed from the office of recorder of New -York,
and Dr. Tillotson, another near connection and personal
friend of Gov. Lewis, was removed from the office of
secretary of state.

But there is one act of this council, which, in my judg-
ment, admits of no reasonable apology. The act to which
I refer, was the removal of Gideon Hawley from the
office of superintendent of common schools. Mr. Haw-
ley had by great skill and labor formed our common
school system. All who know him, and he is now, and
was then generally known, admit not only his fitness, but
his peculiar fitness for that office. On the able and faith-
ful discharge of his duties depended, not the temporary
success of this or that party, but in a considerable degree
the weal or woe of the rising generation. The council
removed him and appointed in his place Welcome Esleeck,
Esq., a mere collecting attorney, who had scarce any of
the requisite qualifications of a superintendent of schools.
So gross was this outrage, that the political friends of the
council in the legislature, would not submit to it. Gen,

570 POLITICAL HISTORY

Root soon after the appointment of Mr. Esleeck for, as
■was well understood, the mere purpose of getting rid of
him, introduced a bill, or attached a clause to some bill
on its passage in the assembly, enacting that the secreta-
ry of state should, ex-officio, be the superintendent of com-
mon schools, which soon passed through both houses with
acclamation. Mr. John Van Ness Yates, a man of great
versatility of talent, was then secretary. Both he and his
successors have performed well and faithfully their duties
as superintendent of schools. , There is, however, one
objection to Gen. Root's law. The secretary of state is
necessarily a politician- but the man who presides over
our system of popular education should be entirely detached
from all political parties. It is the improvement of the
mind and morals of children, and not the promotion of
the success of a party, which should call into action all
his energies, and to which all his eflforts should be di-
rected.

Soon after the removal of Mr. Mclntyre, the Clinto-
nians nominated him as their candidate for a state sena-
tor from the middle district. The candidate, regularly,
should have been taken from the county of Otsego, but
the Clintonians of that county feeling indignant at Mr.
Mclntyre's removal, cheerfully gave up their right to the
candidate, and he was by his political friends in the dis-
trict supported with great cordiality. On the other hand,
the democratic party considering this, as it really was, an
appeal to the people from the decision of thfe council, and
a sort of trial by the country whether his conduct in rela-
tion to Gov. Tompkins had been correct, exerted them-
selves to defeat his election, with great zeal and energy.
The people rendered their verdict in favor of Mr. Mcln-
tyre ; a result the more honorable to him, because at the
preceding election, the bucktail or democratic majority in
that district was about eight hundred, and Mr. Mclntyre,

OF NEW-YORK. 571

together with his colleague, Mr. Hasbrouck, was this year
elected by a niajority of about four hundred.

In the assembly the democratic party elected sevent}''
members, and the Clintonians fifty-two. In the senate,
from the southein district, Abraham Gurnee and Abel
Huntington were elected ; in the middle, Archibald Mc-
Intyreand Abraham Hasbrouck ; eastern, David C. Judson
and Daniel Shepherd • western, Samuel M. Hopkins and
Henry Seymour were chosen.

The members elected from the southern district, and
Mr. Seymour from the western district, were republicans,
and the others were Clintonians. The majority of votes
in the state for a convention, was seventy-four thousand
four hundred and forty-five ! !

This overwhelming majority is an evidence of the
powerful current of public opinion in favor of that mea-
sure • and if an able general ought to foresee the result
of a battle, Mr. Clinton, Chief Justice Spencer, Judge Van
Ness and others, as good politicians, ought to have
known that a current was in motion which it was in vain
to resist, and which would overwhelm in ruin all who at-
tempted to resist it.

(Note A, Referred to on Page 503.)

ADDRESS,

Of the republican members of the Legislature friendly to
the administration of the State government, to their
constituents.

Fellow-Citizeks— Accountability of the representative to his constituents, for
the manner in which he executes the trust reposed in him, is a vital principle >■
our Constitution— and a frank interchange of sentiment on events and topics inte-
resting to both, at all times desirable, is on many occasions indispensable to a
correct exercise of their respective and mutual duties to each other.

Under these impressions we have deemed it our duty respectfully to submit to
you, in as concise a manner as possible, a brief outline of the present political
condition and aspects of the state, as they present themselves to our observation;
our views of the manner in which the executive department of the government has
discharged its duties to the public, since the election of the present chief magis-
Irate; of the grounds on which it has met our general approbation and support;
and the reasons which constrain us to believe that the opposition to it, by a
number of persons claiming to belong to the republican party, is unreasonable
and unjust.

Before, however, we enter on the discussion of those topics, we cannot deny
ourselves the pleasure of congratulating you on the apparent, and we hope and
believe real, annihilation in the national legislature, of those party feuds and ani-
mosities which, previous to the election of the present President of the United
States, have excited the most intemperate passions incident lo popular govern-
ments, and which seamed for a time to threaten a dissolution of our Uniou. This
stale of things is ha jpily succeeded by an unexampled unanimity of opinion in
measures believed to be the best calculated to preserve the liberty, promote the
interest and power, and advance the glory of the nation.

It affords us equal satisfaction to be able to announce to you, that on the all
important measures which have from time to time been recommended by the go-
vernor of this state, there would now appear, if we were to trust only to general
professions, to be scarce a serious difference of opinion among the members of
your state legislature. That the interest, happiness, and character of the state
require that the science of agriculture should be patronized and encouraged ; that
our criminal code should be revised and improved ; that our seminaries of learn-
ing should be fostered and protected ; that efficacious measures should be ta-
ken to diffuse the elements of science among all ranks and classes of the rising
generation, by an assiduous and unremitting attention to common schools; and
that the great and magnificent enterprise of connecting by a line of inland naviga-
tion the waters of the Hudson and the western and northern l.ikes, should be pro-
-secuted with effect, few at this day seem disposed openly to question. These are

POLITICAL HISTORY. 573

the leading measures recommended by the executive, and in the accomplishment
of these important objects, all the energies of his mind and all his official influ-
ence appear to have been employed. But notwiths.anding there is apparently
little difference in opinion as to measures, we are compelled from a sense of duty
to our constituents, to announce the fact, that an opposition, of a character ex-
tremely active and persevering, has for some lime been forming, and is now ef-
fectively organized, for the purpose of prosecuting a bitter and relentless war
against the state administration.

A difference of opinion respecting men and measures, is to be expected in all
republican governments — it necessarily grows out of the nature of man when
placed in such governments. But when a party of men strive to oust those in
power from their places, and ask of the electors to place themselves in their
stead, it is but reasonable that they should furnish the public with some charges,
having relation to the public interest, against the incumbents in office. If they
do not. it is scarcely necessary to mention that the irresistible inference is, that
they contend not for prmciple, but for office and emolument. If it can be shown
that such are the objects for which an opposition contends, their fate will soon be
sealed, their doom will quickly and inevitably be pronounced by the independent
electors of this state.

We have seen that the opposition to the state administration do not affect openly
and directly to oppose the measures recommended by the governor. On what,
then, do they found their opposition? The principle pretexts which have come
to our knowledge, are a charge that the governor and his political friends have
coalesced with the party denominated federalists, to the prejudice of the old re-
publican party; and complaints respecting the distribution by appointments, of
the state patronage, so far as the governor has had an agency in that distribution.
Before we make any remarks on these allegations we beg leave to invite your at-
tention to the history of the opposition, since Governor Clinton was brought for-
ward as a candidate for the office he now holds. When Governor Tompkins, in
the spring of 1817, vacated the gubernatorial seat, the republican party,' which
then constituted a commanding majority in the state, were divided in opinion
with respect to the person of his successor. A large portion of that party
were in favor of Mr. Clinton, and a smaller portion, considerable for their num
bers and talents, were opposed to him. It was finally agreed that the question
should be decided by a majority of delegates from all the counties in the state.
A meeting was held of those delegates, and Mr. Clinton was nominated by a re-
spectable majority. He was elected without serious opposition from any party.
It was hoped and believed, that the minority of the republican party who had op-
posed Mr. Clinton's nomination, and who we presumed wereactuated by pure and
correct motives but by misguided judgments, would, after this fair and decisive
expression of the voice of the majority of the party of which they claimed to be
members, have relinquished their opposition, and accorded to his administration
a liberal support, by aiding him with their talents and influence. We regret to
be obliged to acknowledge that in this we were disappomted.

Before Mr. Clinton had done a single official act, he and his friends were as-
sailed by a leading opposition paper in the city of New-York, in terms more bitter
and vindictive than we had been accustomed to hear from any party against any
former governor. Measures were taken by the leaders of the opposition in New-
York to put in nomination, for members of the legislature, men notorious for their
personal and political hostility to the governor. Many of these members, on
their arrival at the seat of government, openly and perseveringly attacked thegO'
Tornor, in language less temperate than, from past experience, could have been
anticipated from an organized opposing political party.

374 POLITICAL HISTORY

*

Suspicions and insinuations were industriously circulated in every part of tht
state, that although Mr. Clinton had not as yet committed any heinous political
sin, yet that he wouli skortlj be guilty of the grossest political crimes. Was this
evidence of an attachment to the republican party, to be thus industrious in sow-
ing the seeds of dissension and disunion among its members?

We believe, fellow-citizens, you will not hesitate to answer this question in the
negative — we believe you will impute such conduct to personal hostility, and to
an ardent desire to govern and control the republicans of the country. The
charge agamst the governor and his friends, of coalescing with the federalists as
a party, under any express or implied understanding as to objects or measures,
is, as we are fully convinced, utterly untrue : no overtures of this sort, either by
the federalists or the friends of the administration, were ever made or enter-
tained by either — the charge does equal injustice to the federalists as to the ad-
ministration. It must have originated from the most stupid credulity, distem-
pered jealousy, or implacable resentment.

Do the opponents of the administration desire a union of the republican party?
The members of any party who intend to act together, must settle this rule, that
the minority must yield to the majority. So self-evident is this, that we feel au-
thorized in assuming it as a fact, that whenever a minority of the members of a
party refuse to go with the majority, the intention of the minority is to break
up the party to which they are attached, and to aid the party in opposition. Let
us try the opposition to the slate administration by this rule. On the question
relative to the choice of members of the council of appointment, fifty-five repub-
licans voted for the present members of that body, and forty-two in opposition to
thera. In the choice of senator of the United States, sixty-four republicans voted
for Mr. Spencer, and fifty-seven for Mr. Young. The minority pertinaciously
persisted in that vote, and by that means the election of a senator in congress
was defeated. These facts appear from the Journals of the legislature.

FBLLow-CirizENS — With such facts before you, can you believe these men sin-
cere, or rather do you not believe that their judgments are fatally biassed, or
their feelings preverted, when they tell you they wish the integrity and union of
the republican party ? We are happy to learn that such has been the course pur-
sued by Mr. Monroe in the administration of the national government, and such
the course pursued by Mr. Clinton in the administration of the government of this
state, that a large proportion of the federalists have declared their determination
to support both, and we shall not abandon either the one or the other, because
those who have t)e longed to the federal party think proper to support them.
Measures and not men has been, and we trust will contin-e to be, the maxim
whii'h governs the conduct of the great republican parly. While we protest
against all political or personal bargains or negotiations with the federal party,
as dishonorable, both to us and to them, we shall most sincerely rejoice to see
men who have belonged to that party exercising that elective franchise, secured
to us all by the Constitution, in a manner best calculated to promote the substan-
tial interest and prosperity of the state. So far from feeling it to be a cause o!
regret or reproach, that the measures pursued by our state administration com*
ipand and receive the confidence and support of so large a portion of our former
political opponents, we have only to reprct that with them this sentiment, and a
conduct corresponding to it, is not already still more universal. Butitis, wa
presume, with that party as with most others in a free state : Though the sober,
the discreet, and the more experienced portion, are disposed to attach a rational
confidence and yield a disinterested support to that system of policy which promi-
ses to all equal protection, and guarantees to the best institutions and interests
of the state, tranquility, stability, and safety ;— yet it is equally to be expected.

OF NEW-YORK. 575

that, as in the oresent case, the disappointed, the aspiring, and the restless spir-
its, who hriTc still the feelings of unsubdued pride to struggle with, personal ob-
jects to answer, private resentments to avenge, or '' unchastened ambition" to
gratify, will attach themselves to an opposition whose first object is change, and
whoe rewards must consist in at least a promised participation of the common
spoils of a war waged for common objects, to be distributed, as they may perhaps
be flattered to expect, for the common benefit of its most humble partisans.

With respect to the appointments made since Mr. Clinton's election, we have
briefly to remark,— That the competition for office always has been, and under
our present system will, we fear, ever be, a matter of serious embarrassment to
the executive and his council. The zeal of the partisans of the difierent candidates
frequently occasions representations calculated to mislead, and the immense
population and extent of territory included in the state renders it difficult and
sometimes impossible to detect misrepresentations ; and thus, with the purest
intentions on the part of thegovornorand the council, improper appointments will
sometimes be made. Bui in more than eight thousand civil and military appoint-
ments, which we are informed have been made since Mj. Clinton's election, how
many have a zealous and indefatigable opposition been able to designate as im-
proper? So few are the number complained of, that candor must idmit that that
administration must have been extremely fortunate in its selections to office,
whose enemies have not been able to point out a greater number of improper ap.
pointments. Few, indeed, have been removed from office, except for official mis-
conduct, proved to the satisfaction of the council; and we have reason to believe
that very few removals have been made, except when public opinion, without re-
gard to the political character of ihe incumbent, seemed imperiously to require,
such removal. We think we risk nothing in saying, that the appointing and remov
Ing power, has during Gov. Clinton's administration, been exercised in a manner
much more mild and tolerant than has, at any time since the organization of par-
ties, been usual in this state. And here permit us to ask how many cases are there
where those invested with important offices do not faithfully and promptly dis-
charge their duties ? We call, with confidence, on the opposition to point us to
the many pretended instances where G'-vernor Clinton has appointed officers who
have not performed their functions with honor and fidelity. Some of the most in-
telligent friends of the governor have, indeed, blamed him for permitting men to
hold offices, who exercised and who still exercise the very influence created by
them, to injure and bring into disrepute the administration which protects them
in the enjoyment of such offices. We, however, hope and trust that the adminis-
tration will continue its mild and tolerant course, and that it will be only solici-
tous to search for talents and virtue as the legitimate objects of its patronage.

There is one other accusation which has been made against the administration,
which perhaps it is our duty to notice, although in our view it is so totally ground-
less as hardly to deserve a moment's attention of reasonable and intellijent men.
The opposition tell the people that the administration of the state government is
attempting to break down the regular caucus nominations. Without entering
into the merits of this question it is sufficient, that as it respects the administra-
tion, we deny the charge. With caucus meetings and modes of nominating men
to office, the government has no concern, either directly or indirpctly: It is beyond
the pale of the legitimate duties of government— the people will nominate men for
office as they think proper — they will hold caucusses, or refuse to hold them, as
their own judgments shall dictate. That administration would be ridiculous that
should descend to an interference in such concerns. It must always be a matter
of choice and expediency with a free community to pursue this or that method in
settling on the most proper candidate for office; and because some who maintaia

•^76 POLITICAL HISTORY

the measures of an administration, think proper to oppose one kind of popular
meetings to designate candidates for office, and adopt another, is this to be a good
reason for overturning a wise, prudent, and enlightened system of government?
Reason stamps her broad and lasting seal on the negative. We lament that a
party has organized itself in opposition to the state administration, and that a
political war is again to be commenced. But inasmuch as the opposition do not,
because they cannot, openly and professedly at least, oppose Me measures pursued
by the executive— inasmuch as the state patronage has been distributed in a man-
ner as generally acceptable as could have been reasonablyanticipated— inasmuch
as the accusation that the friends of the administration are leagued with the fede-
ralists, by ties which would be discreditable to both, is totally untrue— and inas-
much as these are the only ostensible reasons assigned by an active and industri-
ous opposition, as the grounds of their hostility, we cannot doubt the result of the
coniioversy, when you shall have an opportunity of deciding it at the polls.

Can it be that the intelligent farmers of this great and flourishing state will
countenance an opposition, who for aught that now appears, are contending, not
about measures, but for the exclusive enjoyment of office? We are proud to say
we entertain no apprehensions of a result so disreputable to the state. We do
indeed deeply regret that heretofore this state has been so torn by faction, so
unsteady in its political character, that its influence has hardly been felt iu the
nation. Shall we perpetuate those factions and feuds, or shall we suppress them?
The correct, enlarged, and practical political views of Mr. Clinton, as developed
in his official communications, have of late attracted the eyes of the whole natioa
towards the enlarged policy of this state, and enlisted in our favor the highest
hopes of her patriots.

Under the administration of a political counsellor so able, intelligent, and de-
cisive; with such natural advantages, such abundant resources, and with a popu-
lation containing so much enterprise and talent, the progress of our state in its
march to commercial and political importance, has been regarded as extremely
rapid. Shall we permit that progress to be arrested?

Fellow-Citizems- We intreat you to answer this question at the polls, by such
an exercise of your electoral rights as shall yield a liberal and honorable support
to your state administration, so long as that administration pursues, as we con-
ceive it has heretofore pursued, those measures best calculated to promote the
interest, the tranquility, and the dignity of the state.

OF THE SENATE. Henry Gros, Herkimer.

Eastern District. Robert Hall, Montgomery.

Levi Adams, Jacob Hees, Montgomery.

George Rosekrantz, Aaron Haring, Montgomery.

Western District. John HofTnagle, Essex.

Stephen Bates, David P. Hoy t, Oneida.

Gamaliel H. Barstow, E. Hill, Ontario.

Perry G. Childs, Aaron Hubbard, Schoharie.

Ephraim Hart. Samuel Jackson, Montgomery

Middle District. Joel Kecler, Saratoga.

Jabez D. Hammond, Hezekiah Moflat, Orange.

John Lounsbury, Jedcdiah Aliller, Schoharie.

William Ross, David Munro, Onondaga.

Peter Swart. Abraham Matteson, Genesee.

OF THE ASSEMBLY. D. McMartin, Jr , Montgomery.

William K. Adams, Washington William McCartney, Ontario.

William Allen, Cayuga. Elisha Ostrander, Ulster.

E. Bacon, Oneida. Philo Orton, Chautaque.

OF NEW-YORK.

577

George Brown, Jr., Jefferson.
John Blake, Orange.
Abner Carpenter, Saratoga.
John Covvles, Jefferson.
William Billinghurst, Ontario.
Henry Case, Onondaga.
Seth Chase, Otsego.
John Crispell, Ulster.
Jonas Cleland, Herkimer.
John Doty, Washington.
John Dow, Steuben,
Elijah Devoe, Cayuga.
Nichol Fosdick, Herkimer
Norman Fox, Warren.
Obadiah German, Chenango.
Luther Guiteau, Oneida.
Albany, April 13, 1819.

Isaac Phelps, Jr., Niagara.
Dennison Palmer, Madison.
Henry Polhemus, Cayuga.
Levi Robbins, Lewis.
John Rogers, Jr., Saratoga.
Isaac Sutherland, Genesee.
John A. Stevens, Ontario.
John Sutton, Tompkins
Peter Swart, Jr., Schonarie.
Henry Wells, Tioga.
Ebcnezer Wakely, Chenango.
Theor Woodruff, Oneida.
Ashael Warner, Ontario.
Andrew Wilson, Orange.
Joseph York, St. Lawrence.

(Note B, Referred to on Page 335.)

I do not now recollect the particulars of the altercation between Judge Taylor
and Mr. Purdy. Of one thing however, I am certain, that all men at the time
justified Judge Taylor for committing this apparent act of violence. The provo-
cation therefore, on the part of his antagonist, must have been great. Judge Tay-
lor, though a man of high tone of feeling, inflexible resolution and indomitable
courage, was utterly incapable of unjustifiably assailing an adversary.

(Note C, Referred to on Page 389.)

1 was mistaken in stating that no convention was held in pursuance of the cir
cular referred to in the text. I was led into the error by a pretty careful exami
nation of the files of the Evening Post. Not finding in that paper any account o
the proceedings of any convention held in pursuance of the call, I inferred that
no such convention was held. The conjecture expressed in the text, that "one
object of the convention was to take into consideration the conduct of the Eastern
Federalists," and probably to deliberate on the question, whether the Federalists
of New- York should be represented in the Hartford Convention, was also entirely
unfounded. Col. Stone, in the Commercial Advertiser of April 15, 1842, says the
convention was held, that he was a member of it. that its '' immediate object
was to consider Mr. Van Buren's conscription bill, then before the Senate," and
that the Hartford Convention was not named at that convention.

37

578 political history

(Note D, Referred to on Page 155.)

Since the publication of the first edition, I have been informed that the report
that Gov. Jay, after his retirement from public life, refused to read political news-
papers, was incorrect. Judge William Jay, in his letter to me, after stating that
the report was untrue, and that such a refusal would not have been consistent
with the interest every good man ought to take in the welfare of his country,
says: — "He," (Gov Jay,) " read the papers constantly, and, at times, took pa-
pers of opposite politics, that he might obtain more full information of passing
events. So, also, he made it a point of duty to vote at every election." It is
singular how the report mentioned in the text obtained currency. I have heard
it asserted as truth, among well informed men, perhaps a hundred times

(Note E, Referred to on Page 412.)

The Bank of the United States was chartered during this session. The bill for
its charter was reported by Mr. Calhoun, chairman of the finance committee. It
was supported generally by the Republican members of Congress, and among its
supporters Clay, Calhoun, Forsyth, Ingham, Lowndes and J. W. Taylor were the
most influential and efficient. It was opposed by the Federalists as a party, at
the head of whom in the H. R. was Mr. Webster. They were joined by some of
the southern and a few other democratic members. By the aid of these, .Mr
Webster entertained sanguine hopes of resisting successfully the passage of the
bill, but his expectations were disappointed by a defection in his own ranks,
which he did not anticipate, and which be perceived with surprise and mortifica-
tion. Mr. Grosvenor from this state, and .Mr. Hulbcrt from Massachusetts, before
the close of the discussion, declared themselves in favor of the Bank, and even-
tually about fifteen other Federalists voted with them in favor of the bill.

While the bill was in committee of the whole in the H. R. an incident occurred
which in the history of political parties deserves to be noticed. Doct. Lewis
Condit, a member from N. Jersey, moved to amend the bill by providing for the
location of the Mother Bank in the city of New- York. He was supported by Gov.
Robertson, a member from New Orleans, by Mr. Forsyth from Georgia, and many
others of the southern and western members, and his amendment was adopted by
a large m:ijority. Mr. Robertson, Forsyth and others contended with great and
decisive effect that the Rank ought to be located in the Commercial Metropolis.
It will be recollected that Mr. Dallas of Philadelphia, was at that time Secretary
of the Treasury. The evening succeeding the day on which Dr. Condit's mo-
tion was adopted, Mr. D. set on foot a very active system of electioneering,, and
the next day Mr. Clendenin from Ohio, moved a reconsideration of the vote,
which motion was carried.

It was at that period pretty well ascertained, that the bill for chartering the
Bank would not pass the house, without the vote of a large majority of the re-
publican members from New-York. Mr. Taylor, therefore, invited a meeting of
those members. Such a meeting or caucus was held, and Mr. T. proposed that

OF NEW-YORK. 579

unless the friends of the Bank would consent to rescind the vote upon Mr. Clen-
denin's motion, the New- York members should agree to vote ngainst the bill.
A majority at first seemed inclined to do so, but Mr. Irving from the city of New-
York beingcalled on, declared that he had given his word "to the administra-
tion," as he expressed himself, to vote in favor of the Bank, and he should do so.
Upon this, Mr. Taylor said, if the member from the city, which was most inter-
ested in the question, chose to relinquish his opposition to the location of the
Bank in a rival city, he (Mr. T.) coming as he did from the country, would not
assume the responsibility for the sake of sustaining the supposed interest of the
city, of opposing the chartering of the Bank, and with him nearly all the coun-
try members concurred. It would therefore seem, that either the Bank would have
been located in New-York, or no bank would have been chartered, if Mr. Irving
had not declared his determination to vote for a bank, to be stationed in Phila-
delphia. Eventually, all the republican members from this stale, except Messrs.
Birdsall, Root, Savage and myself voted for the Bank.

(Note F, Referred to on Page 469.)

In the first edition it is stated that Gen. Root was appointed by this council
District Attorney for the county of Delaware. This is an error. The fact was,
a majority of the council ogrcerf to appoint Mr. Root, which occasioned an im-
pression upon my mind that he had been actually appointed, and I incautiously
stated the fact without referring to the minutes of the council.

(Note G, Referred to on Page 568.)

The text is wrong as respects the removal of Col. Sperry. He was
charged with official rnalconduct as president of a court martial. Infor-
mation recently received from a gentleman who then resided at Platts-
burgh, and was an officer in the militia, enables me to state, that a brother
of Col. S. at that time was a Lieut. Col. of a Regiment of Infantry, and
that Maj. A. C Flagg had raised a uniformed battalion. The companies
which composed Maj. Flagg's battalion consisted each of 100 men. The
Lieutenant Colonel contended that Maj. F. had no right to enlist more
than 64 men in one company, and on that ground he returned as delin-
quent some 30 or 40 of Flagg's men On the trial of these men Major
Flagg employed Mr. Walworth, the present Chancellor, as their counsel.
He contended that the officers of the battalion under whwse orders the
accused had acted, if there had been a delinquency, were the delinquents,
and not the privates, who innocently and in good faith had at their own ex-
pense equipped themselves; that if the officers had been the accused, they
must have been tried by a general court inadial, which would have been
ordered by Maj. Gen. Mooers, in which event they would have* had a
fair trial ; that to evade an impartial investigation, the present course had

/

580 POLITICAL HISTORY

been adopted, and a court had been organized with a president, who was
the mere instrument of Lieut. Col. Sperry, whose feelings were strongly
biassed agiiinst the accused. M.--. Walworth probably advocated the
cause ofliis clients with some warmtli, and the president, Col. Sperry,
alledging that he treatef the court disrespectfully, commanded him to be
silent; but he continuing to advise his clients, the court forced him to leave
the room, and stationed a marshal at the door to prevent him from return-
ing. These facts were represented to the Council of Appointment, and
on that representation Col. Sperry was removed.

(NoTK H, Referred to on Page 245.)

Present information enables me to say, that the imputation of sinister
motives implied in the text against the venerable Edward Savage is un-
just. The only new appointment, that of Mr, Crary, was induced by a
political necessity, which then existed, the history of which would not
now be interesting, but which entirely exonerates both Mr. Savage and
Mr. Crary from the charge of being influenced by any other than nonor-
able motives.

(Note I, Referred to on Page 328.)

Since the publication of the first edition, I have again examined the
pamphlet referred to in page 329, on the authority of which, the state-
ment in the text is principally made. I find that the pamphlet does not
expressly state that the petition (which has been lost) contained a nrayer
for the grant of the salt works ; but from its tenor no reader can fail of in-
fering that a lease of those works was one of the main objects of ilie
Company. Whether I was induced to aliedge that these works were
petitioned for, from reading the pamphlet, or by finding the allegation in
some cotemporary newspaper. 1 can not now determine.

1 make these remarks for the purpose of stating, that it was far from
my intention to charge any of the gentlemen named in the text as pe-
titioners, witli improper motives. It is bv no means probable that at that
day the low price for which salt would eventually be manufactured was
anticipated, or the real value of the salt springs ajipreciated. The appli-
cation for a charter for the Stale Bank was a party measure, and these
gentlemen signed the petition as leaders of the Republican party, and as
state officers. My sole object for inserting this account in the text was,
to afford an illustration of th^ danger of legislative grants of monopulies ;
and I mentioned the names of Gov. Tayler, Judge Spencer, Doct. Tillot-
son and Col. Jenkins, as evidence that men of high character for patriot-
ism sometimes innocently sign petitions for exclusive grants, without suA
ficiently considering the e\ ils which may result from them. Judge Spen-
cer has recently denied (as I think in rather uncourteous terms) that h«
had any concern in asking for a lease of the salt springs.

INDEX TO VOLUME I.

ACT, to raise the pay of militia, for privateering, 380. For raising two regiments
of colored men, 331. Relating to inland navigation, 301. In relation to
internal improvements, 425.

ADAMS, JOHN^, candidate for President, 1796, 101. Is elected, result of canvass
102. Violent oppositon to his administration, its cause, 116.

ADAMS, JOHN Q., letter in favor of the embargo, 266.

ADDRESS, of Clintonian parly, 504.

ALLEN, PETER, controversy, 413-17.

ALLIANCE between France and America, celebrated in New- York, 106.

ANTI-FEDERALISTS, their reasons for voting for adoption of Federal Constitu-
tion, 25. 26.

ANSWER to the Governor's speech, 282. Of the Senate, 369.

ARISTIDES, remarks upon, ISS.

ARMSTRONG, JOHN, elected Senator of United States, 153. Appointed Minis-
ter to France, 215. Secretary of War, 358. Retires, 379.

AUSTIN, MOSES, account of his nomination for senator, 470-1.

B.

BANK, U. S., charter expires, attempt to renew it, 290. Plan to establish a great
bank in the city of New-York, 299. Merchants' Bank, New-York, 333-
35. Mercantile Company, Albany, 219. Bank of America, project to
defeat the passage of the bill, 312. Bill passed, 314.

BANKS, chapter xvii. 323. Chartering Manhattan Bank, 325-7. State Bank, 328.
Merchants' Bank, 330. Proceedings in chartering Bank of America, 335.
Chemical Bank, 337.

BENSON, EGBERT, appointed Justice of the Supreme Court, 81.

BOUCK, WILLIAM C, member of Assembly, 368. Appointed Canal Commis-
sioner, 563. His character, 664.

BRIBERY, bill for the prevention of, 233.

BUCKTAIL PARTY, origin of name, 451. Obtain a majority in Assembly, 632.

BUEL, JESSE, Editor of the Plebeian, 224. Establishes the Albany Argus, his
character, 358. Appointed State Printer, 383. Transfers the Argus to
Moses I. Cantine and I. Q. Leake, who were appointed State Printers,
836.

BURR, AARON, acts with the Federalists in 1789, 39. Chosen United States
Senator, 50. Elected member of Assembly from Orange county, 136.
His conduct in respect to the Presidential election in 1800, 1.37-44. He
loses the confidence of the republicans, 202. Becomes a candidate for

582 ixDEX.

Governor in opposition to the Democratic party, 208. His party de-
scribed, 203. Is defeated, reflections on his defeat, 208-9. Charged
with treason, 24S His character, 264-9.

CADY, DANIEL, member of Assembly, character, 272.

CANAL, bill passed to construct, 441. Proceeding in relation to, 492.

CANAL COMMISSIONERS, names of persons first appointed, 301. Their powers
and political character, 301. Appointed under the aet of 1S16, i-2o-6.

CAUCUS, how iar its proceedings ought to be binding, 192. Of Federalists, re-
specting the support of Col. Burr for Governor, 208. Proceedings of,
411-12. To nominate United States Senator, 434.

CHANGE, of the mode of nominating candidates for the Senate, 294.

CLARK, ISR.AEL W., editorof Albany Register, character, 472.

CLINTON, GEORGE, opposes adoption of U. S. Constitution, 4. His re-election,
41. Re-election, 62. Investigationbytne Assembly as to the validity of
his election, 76. His views in relation to appointments and removals,
83. Declines a re-election, 88. Elected member of Assembly, 135. No-
minated Governor, 154. Elected, 162. Elected Vice-President, 216.
Reasons assigned for his vote against U. S. Bank, 290. Letter to Wil-
liam Dunning, 269. A portion of the democratic party for giving him
the vote of the state for President, 268. Death, 312.

CLINTON, DE WITT, elected member of Assembly, lOS. Chosen Senator from
Southern District, 115. Member of Council of Appointment, 153. Of-
fers resolution in the Senate that Presidential Electors shall be chosen
in districts by the people, 183. Chosen United States Senator, 183. Ap-
pointed Mayor of New-York, resigns his seat in U. S. Senate, 197. Re-
marks on same, 197-200. Mayor of New- York, 262. Resolutions and
speech approving the general administration, 271. Mayor of New-York,
289. Nominated for Lieut. Governor, 291. Project to support him for
President, 297. Nominated candidate for President, 315. Defeated,
322. Displaced from Mayorality, 399. His memorial to Legislature
in favor of Canal, 424. Appointed Cmal Commissioner, 425. Schemes
to defeat bis nomination for Governor, 434. Elected Governor, 443.
Speech to Legislature, 449. His political position, 474. Speech in 1819,
482. Re-elected, 631. Speech in 1820, 538. Controversy with Senate,
662-7.

GOLDEN, C. D., appointed Mayor of New-York, 464.

COMMON SCHOOLS, provisions for, proposed by Jedediah Peek, 129. Bill for,
158. Bill passed for support of same, 216. Governor urges attention
to the fund, 280. Laws respecting remodelled, 374. System improved,
491.

CON\'ENTION, at Poughkeepsie, 21. Its proceedings, 22-9.

CONVENTION, question on calling, 543. Meeting at Tammany Hall recommend
a bill for calling same, 537.

C0mT:NT10N OF 1801, recommended, 159. Its proceedings, 165-7.

COODIES, their origin, 397.

COOPER, CHARLES D., Secretary of State, 440.

COOPER, WILLIA.M, attempt in the Assembly to impeach him, 77. Resolution
rejected, 82.

COUNCIL OF APPOINTMENT, its powers, 32. Governor claims exclusive right
of nomination, 32. Members of, in 1789, 38. In 1790, 44. In 1791, 49.
in 1732, 54. Dispute with Gov. Jay, I65-S. Peculiarity of this feature

i.\DEX. 583

in the constitution, 109-70 Its proceedings in ISOl, 172. Bcmarks up-
on, 180 Proceedings in 190C, 234. Lewisite Council chosen, 237. Its
proceedings, 238. Character of its members, 246. Of 1808, 261. Its
proceedings, 201. Of 1810 and its proceedings, 280. Of 1811, 289. Of
1812, Clintonian in iis character, 304. Of 1813. Federal, 343. Its pro-
ceedings, 34G, Of 1816, its proceedings, 392-6. Of 1816, 417. Effect
of influence in, 420. Of 1817, 436. Proceedings of, after election of Ue
Witt Clinton, 446. Manner of its selection in 1818, 468-9. Of 1820, 518.
Of 1821, 639. Its proceedings, 567-70.

CRAWFORD, WM. H. candidate for President, 410

CRUGER, DANIEL, Speaker of the Assembly, 413.

D.

DEMOCRATIC PARTY, their success in 1800, 134. Great success in 1803, 194.
DUDLEY, CHARLES E., elected Senator from Middle District, 603.
DUELS, singular combination of Burr's friends, 137. Duel between De Witt Clin-
ton and John Swanwout, 186. Between Hamilton and Burr, 210-14.
DUER, WILLIAM A., member of Assembly, character, 427.
DYDE SUPPER, 228.

E.

EDWARDS, OGDEN, introduces bill for convention, 469.
ELECTORAL LAW proposed by J. Swartwout in 1799, 122.
ELECTORS FOR PRESIDENT in 1800, 152.

EMBARGO, 260. Effect of, 266.

EMMETT, THOMAS ADDIS, appointed Attorney-General— character, 346.
EMOTT, JAMES, chosen Speaker, 363.

F.

FEDERALISTS, points of difference between them and Anti-Federal party, 16-19.
Causes of defeat in 1800, 162. Obtain e^ majority in Assembly, 296.
Causes of again becoming a minority, 296. Success in New-York, 296.
Charged with partiality to the British, 223. Obtain majority in As-
sembly, 311. Of New-York, disapprove of Hartford Convention, 389.
Favor the nomination of Clinton, 436. Generally supported Clinton,
474-5. Two parties among, 484.

FELLOWS, HENRY, and Peter Allen, controversy for seat in Assembly, 413-17.

FRENCH REVOLUTION, feelings of Americans in relation to, 72.

G.

GERMAN, OBADIAH, elected to the Assembly, 115. Character, 218. Elected
United States Senator, 276. Elected Speaker of Assembly, and contest
respecting same, 477-83.

GREEN BAG MESSAGE, 687.

H.

HALE, DANIEL, appointed Secretary of State, 112.

HAMILTON, ALEXANDER, great agency in relation to the United Stntes Consti-
tution, 4. His letter to T. Pickering, 14. Member of National Conven-

584 INDEX.

tion, 11. His conduct in respect to Presidential Election in 1800, 144-52.

Pamphlet against John Adams, 147. Argument in Supreme Court in

the case of Harry Croswell, 266.
HART, EPHRAI.M, appointed Canal Commissioner, 495.
HARTFORD CONVENTION, 3S3.

HAWLEY, GIDEO.V, Superintendent of Common Schools, 346. Removed, 569.
HEXRV, JOHN v., appointed Comptroller, 134. Removed, his character, 174.
HIGH MINDED FEDERALISTS— their address, 528. Names, 629.
HILDRETH, M. B., appointed Attorney-General, 262. Death, 345.
HOBERT, JOH.N SLOSS, elected United States Senator, 110. His letter to the

legislature, 110. Death, 217.
HOGEBOOM, JOHN C, his character, 196
HOLT, CHARLES, establishes the Columbian, 279.
HUNTINGTON, HENRY, member of the Council of Appointment, character, 334.

JAY, JOHN, candidate for Governor, in 1792, 56. His election defeated by de-
struction of Otsego votes, 63. His prudent conduct on that occasion, 70.
Candidate for Governor in 1795, 90. Elected, 90. Reception on return
from England, 91. His first speech, 95. Re-elected in 1798, 113. Refu-
ses to call an extra session of the legislature, 144-6 Declines a re-
election, 165.

JAY, PETER A., member of Assembly, 427. Recorder of New- York, 806.

JEFFERSON, THOMAS, elected President, 160. His election celebrated at Al-
bany, 160.

JENKINS, ELISH.*, appointed Secretary of State, 174, 262, 289.

JONES, SAMUEL, appointed Comptroller, 104. Importance of that oflBce, 104.
Resigns, 133.

JONES, SAMUEL, Jr., elected member of Assembly, 296.

K.

KENT, JAMES, member of Assembly, 63. Appointed Justice of Supreme Coort,
112. Chief Justice, 214. Chancellor, 366. His opposition to the bill for
encouraging privateering, 380.

KING, RUFUS, chosen United States Senator, 44. Appointed Minister to Lon-
don, 103. Elected United Stales Senator, 343-6. Supports the war, 878.
Nominated for Governor, 425. Re-elected United States Senator, 617.

KING, CHARLES, member of Assembly, his motion to approve of the gallantrf
of the Officers and Seamen of the Navy, 368.

KNOWER, BENJAMN, State Treasurer, his character, 862.

LANDS, sale of, 57.

LANSING, ABRAHAM G., appointed Treasurer, 193. Re-appointed, 282.

LANSING, GERRIT Y., chosen Clerk of Assembly, 237. Removed from office

of Master in Chancery, 289. ,

LANSING, JOHN, Delegate to National Convention, 11. Appointed Justice of

the Supreme Court, 47. Nominated for Governor and declines, 204.

His controversy wilh De Witt Clinton, 241.
LAWRENCE, JOHN, elected United States Senator, 103.
LEWIS, MORGAN, appointed Attorney-General, 51. Justice of Supreme Court,

INDEX. 585

78. Chief Justice, 180. Nomioated for Governor, 204. Elected, 208.

Speech, 232. Elected State Senator, 285. Supports Gov- Tompkias, 286.
LIBEL, law of amended, 207.
LIVINGSTON, BROCKHOLST, Justice of Supreme Court, ISO. Associate Judge

of Supreme Court of United States, 240
LIVINGSTON, GILBERT, speech in Poughlieepsie Convention, 26.
LIVINGSTON, MATURIN, Recorder of New- York, 215. Supports Merchants'

Bank application, 219.
LIVINGSTON, ROBERT R., his support of the Federal Constitution— his change

and opposition to the Federalists, 107: Candidate for Governor, 113.

His death and character, 361.
LOTTERIES, grant of to Colleges, 373. Dr. Nott's efforts in favor of, 373.

M.

MADISON, JAMES, his Kentucky resolutions discussed in New- York Legislature;
125. Nominated for President, 264. Favors the Burrites and Lewis-
ites, 266. Removes G. Granger from the office of Postmaster General
and appoints R. J. Meigs, 391.

MANHATTAN COMPANY chartered, 129.

MARCY, WILLIAM L., Recorder of Troy, 467. Pamphlet written by him in fa-
vor of R. King, 515.

MARCUS and PHILO CATO, letters of, 227.

MARTLING'S LONG ROOM, meeting at, 230.

MARTLING MEN, oppose Clinton, 270.

McCORD, ANDREW, Speaker of the Assembly, 237.

MclNTYRE, ARCHIBALD, elected to the Asssembly, 115. Appointed Comptroller,
234. Removed, 566. Elected State Senator, 570.

MITCHEL, SAMUEL L., chosen U. S. Senator, 215. His charater, 216. Speech
in the Assembly, 283

MONROE, JAMES, candidate for the Presidency, 405. Nominated President, 412,

MORNING CHRONICLE, 185.

MORRIS, GOUVERNEUR, chosen U. S. Senator, 134. Canal Commissoner, 301.

N.

NORTH, WILLIAM, appointed United States Senator by Gov. Jay, 113. Cbosea

Speaker of Assembly, 280.

o.

OAKLEY, THOMAS J., Surrrogate of Dutchess county, 281. His character, 831.

Appointed Attorney-General, 507.
OTSEGO COUNTY, destruction of its votes, 63.

P.

PARTIES, first organized on the question of adopting the Federal Constitutioa

3. In the Convention at Philadelphia, 12.
PECK, JEDEDIAH, elected to the Assembly, 115. His character, 123.
PLATT, CHARLES Z., chosen Treasurer, 351.
PLATT, JONAS, appointed Clerk of Herkimer county, 53. Nominated for

Governor, 279. Character, 279. Appointed Judge of Supreme Court,.

366-7.

586 INDEX.

PORTER, PETER B., Canal Commissioner, 301. Appointed Secretary of Statei

396.
PRENDEKGAST, JEDIAH, contest with Wilson about his seat in Senate, 46S-4.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, result of, in 1S03, 262. Also in 1812, 322.
PURDY, EBENEZER, charged with bribery, 219. Resigns his seat in Senate, 219.

R.

RADCLIFF, PETER W., his conduct in the Council of Appointment, .346-9.

RESOLUTION, that officers of United States could not hold seals in the New-
York Legislature, 45. By Mr. Spencer, that Comptroller (Jones) could
not hold his seat as Senator, 110. In Senate, for loan to the Nation, 353.
To loan money to Niagara sufferers, 364. That Governor furnish infor-
mation relative to interference of United States officers at state elec-
tions, 552.

RESTRAINING LAW, first act relating thereto, 331.

RICH.MOXD ENQUIRER, attack upon Ue Wilt Clinton, 264.

ROOT, ERASTUS elected to the Assembly, 115. His active part in debate in the
Senate, 371. Resolution to inquire into the conduct of W. W. Van
Ness, 519. His bill declaring slavery unconstitutional, 640. Speech
thereon, 641. Speech at caucus for nominating Clinton President, 316.

SANFORD, NATHAN, chosen Speaker of the Assembly, 388. Senator of United
States, 393.

SAVAGE, JOHN, member of Assembly, 368.

SCHUYLER, PHILIP, chosen United States Senator, 44. Re-elected, 106.

SEDITION L.AW, manner of executing it by Federalists, 130.

SENATORS of the United States, bill for choosing, rejected by Council of Revi-
sion, 43.

SEYMOUR, HENRY, elected Canal Commissioner, 497,

SHARPE, PETER, chosen Speaker, 537.

SHELDON, ALEXANDER, Speaker of the Assembly, 202-3.

SLAVERY, bill for abolition of, passes the Assembly, 12S. Question about ad-
mitting Missouri with right to hold slaves, 517.

SOUTHWICK, SOLOMON, chosen Clerk of the Assembly, 190. His character,
190. Editor of Albany Register, 267. Sheriff of Albany, 273. First Pre-
sident of Farmers and Mechanics' Bank, 291. Is an agent for applicants
for Bank of America, 301. Trial for bribery, 318. Nominated for State
Senator, 375. Defeated, 376. Removed from the office of State Printer,
383. Appointed Post-Master of Albany, 407.

SPENCER, AMBROSE, member of Assembly, 79. Of the Council of Appoint-
ment, 163. His correspondence with Judge Foote, 176. Appointed At-
torney-General, 181. Appointed Judge of the Supreme Court, 301
Supports Gen. Armstrong for President, 3.58. Letter to R. Riker by
Gen. King, 319. Opposition to Clintonians, 360. His influence declines.
419-20. Supports Clinton for Governor, 422. Reconoiliation with
Clinton, 430. Appointed Chief Justice, 500.

SPENCER, JOHN C, supported by Clintonians for United Sta'es Senator, 484.

Speaker of the Assembly, 614.
STATE SENATORS, classed politically, 451. Clintonians, their several charac-
ters, 451-3. Bucktails the like, 453-6. Federal, 456.
SUPRE.ME COURT, members of, 42. Project respecting, 493.

INDEX. 587

T.

TAMMANY SOCIETY, its History, 340.

TALLMADGE, MATTHIAS B., appointed United States Judge of Northern Di».
trict, 217.

TAYLOR, JOHN, Speech in the Senate, 2S4. Nominated Lieutenant-Governor,
364. Elected, 367. Acting Governor, his character, 439. Personal af-
fray between him and Judge Purdy, 335.

TAYLOR; JOHN W., member of Assembly, his character, 305. Elected Speaker
of the House of Representatives, United States, 551.

THOMAS, DAVID, elected member of Assembly, 115. Agent of P.ank of America,
tour through Western counties, 301. Appointed State Treasurer, 263.
Re-appointed, and causes for his re-appointment, 305. Arrested and
tried for bribery, 317.

THOMPSON, SMITH, appointed Justice of Supreme Court, 180 His character,
181. AppointedChief Justice, 366. Appointed Mayor of Nevp-York, and
declines, 238. Appointed Secretary of the Navy, 497.

TIBBITS, GEORGE, elected senator, 376.

TILLOTSON, THOMAS, appointed Secretary of State, 174.

TOMPKINS, DANIEL D., member of Convention of 1900, 165. Chosen member of
Congress, 209. Appointed Justice of Supreme Court, 214. Nominated
for Governor, causes, 233. Elected, 246. Re-elected, 288. Speech,
261. Message proroguing Legislature, 309. Re-elected, 357. His popu-
larity, 361. Endorses Treasury notes, 378. Influence and popularity,
391. Message recommending abolition of slavery, 432. Resigns his of-
fice as Governor, 439. His accounts with the state, 501-21. Nomina-
ted for Governor, 527. Calls an extra session of the Legislature, 379.
Declines the office of U. S. Secretary of State, 390. Candidate for the
Presidency, 407. Nominated Vice-President of United States, 412.''

TOWNSEND, HENRY A., member of the Council of Appointment, his political
character, 366.

TREATY WITH GREAT BRITAIN, opposition to it, 92.

VAN BUREN, MARTIN, first civil appointment, 262. First appearance in the
Legislature, 321. His bill for repealing the restraining law, 371. Ap-
pointed Attorney-General, 392. Elected U. S. Senator, 661. His sup-
port of Clinton for President and Tompkins for Governor explained,
429.

VAN NESS, WM. P., appointed U. S. Judge for southern district, 217.

VAN NESS, WILLIAM W., member of Assembly, his character, 217. Leader of
the Federal party in the Assembly, 235. Appointed Judge of Supreme
Court, 247. Proceedings in Assembly against, 618.

VAN RENSSELAER, STEPHEN, candidate for Lieut. Governor in 1796, 90. Elect-
ed candidate for Governor against George Clinton, 155. His letter to
his tenants, 161. Nominated for Governor, 356.

VAN RENSSELAER, JACOB R., Member of Assembly, his character, 272. Ap-
pointed Secretary of State, 366.

VAN VECHTEN, ABRAHAM, appointed Attorney-General, 281. Be-appointed
349.

588 INDEX

W.

WAR, with Great Britain, 317. Difficulties in carrying on same, 3S3. British cap*

ture Washington, 377. Collisions between Senate and Assemt)ly, 351.

Vigorous measures of the Legislature, 381. Peace, 393. Condition of

country at close of war, 394.
WASHINGTON, GEORGE, declines a re-election to the Presidency, 101. His

death, 132.
WHEATON, HENRY, editor of the National Advocate, 343.
WmKlN, JAMES W., chosen Speaker, 263.
WILLET, iMARINUS, candidate for Lieutenant-Governor, 293.
WILLIAMS, ROBERT, elected to the Senate as a Republican, 380 His conduct

in the Council of Appointment, 281.
WOODS, DAVID, elected Speaker, 431-47.
WOODWORTH, JOHN, nominated United States Senator by the Assembly, 191.

Defeated on joint ballot, 192. Appointed Judge of the Supreme Court,

500. His suit with the Bank of America, S47.

Y.

YATES, ROBERT, Delegate to National Convention, 11. Charge to the Grand
• Jury of Albany county, 30. Candidate for Governor against Gov. Clin-
ton, 39. Appointed Chief Justice, 47. Candidate for Governor against
John Jay, 90. Resigns office of Chief Justice, 112.

YATES, JOSEPH C, elected State Senator, 221. Appointed Judge of Supreme
Court, 262.

YATES, JOHN VAN NESS, Recorder of Albany, 289. Removed, 430. Character,
289. Appointed Secretary of State, 468.

^OUNG, SAMUEL, elected member of Assembly, 368. Chosen Speaker, 873.
Author of Amicus Juris Consultus, 380. Supported for United Staiea
Senator, 486.